by Alex Lidell
14
Tye
Tye stood frozen as Shade plodded away, all at once loving and despising his quint brother for trusting him with Lera. Of course, Shade didn’t know the whole of what had happened, the truth that would give Tye nightmares for years to come. The worst part of it was that he remembered nothing of how it came to be. The last memory he could conjure was walking into the woods, the tiger inside him so desperate for freedom that Tye hadn’t dared say goodbye to the lass. And then . . .
“No. Tye, stop! STOP.” The tiger hadn’t understood the words but somehow knew they were important. Felt it. And, overpowering his own instincts, the tiger yielded to Tye’s fae form. He was a truly good tiger, a tiger who deserved a better partner than the ass he had.
Tye’s cock had still been throbbing when he’d shifted and beheld the terrified female. With the next heartbeat, the realization of what he’d nearly done ripped open his soul.
“Upset that Shade wouldn’t take me off your hands?” Lera’s voice pierced the cave’s mossy air, the hurt in her chocolate eyes going beyond her bloodied clothes. Scratched and ruffled and unsteady, the lass still managed to look beautiful. Her long auburn hair tumbled loose over her shoulders, her soft lips pink from being bitten, her eyes large and dark against her pale face. Stars, between Lera’s curves and personality alone, she was gorgeous no matter what she was doing.
Realizing that what Lera was doing presently was striding toward the cave exit, Tye stepped into her path. “You would have been safer and more comfortable with—”
“Where I’m comfortable is not for you to decide.” Lera bumped Tye’s injured shoulder with her own as she walked past. “I can accept a tiger’s instincts. But you trying to bait Shade into ripping you to ribbons to avoid spending a night with me is a whole other matter.”
“Lera!” Tye’s throat tightened, the realization of how she’d taken the conversation just now penetrating his skull. Except now was minutes too late. The lass had already cleared the cave mouth and was currently picking her way up the trail that Shade had disappeared on not long ago. “Wait. Lera, that wasn’t what I meant at all.”
She quickened her pace.
A few more steps and there would be no turning back, Tye could feel it. And the very thought of losing his Lilac Girl sent terror racing along his spine. “Lera!” He ran after her, his long legs covering the distance easily. Once at her back, Tye tossed all wisdom and prudence to the wind and threw his arms around the lass, pulling her against him.
The soft warmth of her small form filled a bleeding void in his chest.
She elbowed him in the ribs. Hard. Bloody Coal and his bloody training.
“Let me go.” Lera enunciated each word.
Tye turned her around, capturing her fury-filled gaze. “No.” He lifted his chin. “Stars know there are a plethora of reasons for you to walk away from me, but this one isn’t on the damn list. So either pick a better one or—”
Lera punched him. Right on his shoulder, sending knives of pain tearing through his left side. As she pulled back her hand for the next strike, Tye grabbed her wrist mid-motion, met her blazing gaze, and captured her mouth with his own, carnal need consuming his whole body.
Lera yanked her hand against Tye’s restraining hold even as her mouth opened to his demand. The scent of her arousal struck him as hard as lightning, hardening him instantly, and the harder she fought, the more heavily her wet scent filled the air. Spurred on, Tye’s tongue claimed Lera’s mouth, plunging deep into her warmth to possess each inch, each fiber. This close, Tye felt the bounding beats of Lera’s heart, his own drumming hard in harmony.
Pulling back, Tye gripped Lera’s chin with his free hand, studying her face. The girl’s lips were swollen from the kiss, the scents of arousal and fury, of need and hurt, all mixing together into a bouquet of her.
“I’ve been here before.” The words Tye never wanted to say tumbled recklessly from his mouth. Leralynn could have any piece of his soul that she wished. And if she wanted none of it, Tye needed to know that too. “I injured my family, I injured my tiger, and now I’ve injured you. I asked Shade to take you because I’m infinitely better at creating problems than fixing them. And because . . .” He drew a breath, held it, and exhaled slowly before speaking. “Something is happening that I do not understand. Something I want to keep you safe from.”
Lera studied him, her large, intelligent eyes piercing through his chest right to his heart. “What is happening?”
“My tiger is . . . rising, demanding more of my attention. He should have torn you apart, lass. I truly have no awareness of the beast. Or at least, I didn’t until . . .” He brushed his thumb over her lips, savoring their softness. “Until you. Somehow, my tiger knew you were vital to me, felt it so strongly that he let me know. It was the first time we’d communicated at all since I tried to murder the beast in colthood.”
Lera froze, her attention so focused on Tye that his heart stuttered. After a moment, her body softened, her willingness to grant Tye another chance as precious as a winter fire. “Tell me,” she said quietly. “All of it. No lying or brushing me off this time, Tye.”
Releasing her, he walked back to the cave, hearing her light steps behind him, and lowered himself to the floor. He held out his hand, a tourniquet around his heart easing when the lass took it. Allowed him to gather her close and savor the heat of her body as he confessed the truth to which he’d never given voice before. Not even to his quint brothers.
“The bond between a shifter’s fae and animal forms is sacred, but it takes a great deal of time to develop, especially during the colt years. That is when the shifting matures from a blind instinct to a partnership.”
“But yours never progressed beyond instinct,” Lera said, her sweet voice vibrating against his chest. “Did something happen to you?”
Tye’s body tightened, the question hitting the center of his heart. “No. Maybe if something had, all that followed would not be my fault. But no. Everything that happened was my own doing.” He sighed, his heart racing even as he knew it was too late to retreat. “I wanted to train in flex. I had a talent for the sport, was drunk on the thrill of it. On the possibilities it could offer. My family is . . . well, the opposite of River’s. My flex victories were going to change our fortune.”
Tye closed his eyes, the cheering of phantom crowds filling his ears. “Once I set my mind on it, training became my entire world—and nothing that interfered with it could be permitted. Including the changes my body needed to make to mature.” He swallowed, feeling words rise up his throat that he could never take back. “The first time I shifted, I missed practice because of that bloody tiger. And I knew it would get worse—that the animal would keep stealing my time, that the shifting would affect my finely tuned muscles and magic. The tiger threatened my future glory, and that meant war.”
“A war on yourself?” Lera said.
Tye shrugged one shoulder. “On what my body was becoming. I couldn’t be a shifter and a realm champion in flex. So I tried to sever the bond. Herbs, magics, anything and everything. Some of it effective, all of it dangerous. I failed to kill the tiger entirely, but I did a damn good job of mangling the bond beyond recognition. Retarding my body’s changes long enough to win the championships. By the time I matured, I’d spent too little time in the feline form to even keep my own awareness.”
Lera brushed her fingers over Tye’s chest, hesitating on his pounding heart. He shivered lightly. “Did anyone else know?”
“My coaches, but they were willing to help me suppress my tiger. I was too bloody talented. When my family started to suspect . . . well, I learned to lie convincingly.”
Lera frowned. “You do all that and then get drunk the evening before the Realm Championship? That makes little sense.”
A humorless chuckle escaped Tye’s chest. “As the level at which I competed increased, so did the . . . incidents. A bought judge here, a faulty bar there. Unfortunately for my opponent
s, I could outperform them nonetheless. But when my path brought me head to head with the prince of Blaze, things escalated.” Taking Lera’s fingers, Tye brought them up to feel his brow, where an indent in the bone could still be felt beneath a small scar. “I received this by way of incentive to fumble a landing. Another time, a broken rib was a message to miss a target.”
“So you started to lose?” she said softly. “To stay safe, you had to lose.”
“No. I tried making noise about it, but my word meant nothing against the prince’s. So I started to compete hurt. And I was bloody good enough to win still. The night before the Realm Championship . . . I wasn’t home when the attack came. My mother and younger sister were. By the time the bastards were through with them, I’d gotten the message. The following day, I got so drunk to do what had to be done—to throw the competition—that I didn’t even think of betting against myself. I think you know the rest.”
“You missed the tournament, which the prince of Blaze proceeded to win,” Lera said, her mind racing behind her gaze. “And you were in and out of jail cells until the quint call.”
“There was rather little incentive to follow the rules at that point,” Tye said simply. “And smuggling pays well.” He swallowed painfully, unable to look at her for this part, to see in her eyes the moment she realized he’d been right to push her away. “Now do you see why I thought you should go with Shade? If it were up to me, Lilac Girl, I would never let you out of my sight for the rest of my life. But it isn’t up to me, especially now that you know the full truth. You deserve better, Lera. You deserve the world.”
Silence trailed at the heels of Tye’s words, the cave around them a capsule of secrets. Each memory shoving itself insistently from its hiding place in the depths of Tye’s mind drove another needle into his soul. Fingers tightening on the rough stone, Tye inhaled the damp, mossy air and awaited judgment.
Several heartbeats passed before Lera rose to her knees, her cool hands gripping Tye’s face. Tipping it to look so deeply into his eyes that Tye felt his soul bared beneath her intense chocolate gaze. Stars, if the girl could make him feel so vulnerable with one look, what could she do with a word? A step? Fear crackled along his veins, but when he tried to pull back, to escape for a bit of air, Lera would not let him.
“I see you, Tye.” Her words rang gently through the cave, stopping Tye’s heart. “And I want you. Not for play. I want you for you, forever.”
Tye’s blood stirred, waking him to Lera’s words. She wanted him.
She wanted him.
The way he’d always longed for her but had been so certain she would never feel in return. He stared into her eyes, hardly daring to believe it.
“And I want forever to start now, Tye,” she said quietly.
Blood roared in Tye’s ears. Stars, he believed her. With every scrap of his soul. And every beat of his throbbing cock.
15
Lera
My heart cracks at Tye’s vulnerable gaze, the slow widening of his eyes as my words finally settle in his mind. My promise of wanting the true him finally melting the wall between us.
“Are you certain, Lilac Girl?” he asks, his voice strained as if he fears chasing off a mirage.
Leaning forward into his pine-and-citrus scent, I brush my lips gently over his. “Quite certain.” A corner of my mouth quirks, my tongue tracing my teeth. “Though perhaps I should sample the merchandise first, given your criminal history and all.”
Tye’s face breaks into a dazzling white smile, his green eyes flashing with that feline mischief I’ve missed so, so much. “Oh, aye. But not here. The light’s poor.” Before I can even gasp, Tye snatches me to him and settles me on his hips as he rises, stepping from the cave into the soft evening light.
Along the shoreline, the river rushes along, its surface equal parts sparkling and treacherous. With the setting sun, the horizon is starting to shimmer with bright orange hues, the kraa-kraa of white birds circling overhead a harmony to the roaring water.
Tye stops mid-step, his attention rapt on the birds. “There’s a memory tickling the back of my mind. Not an image, but a sensation.” A hint of a smile touches his face. “I remember wanting to leap into the sky and catch that bird between my teeth.”
“Your tiger wanted to eat a bird?” I ask. “Or just catch it?”
“Neither. He wanted to bring it to someone very important.” Tye’s ears color. “Did I by chance—”
“A rabbit. A hare. A deer. Don’t get me started. Wait. You said the tiger wasn’t trying to mate with me—why bother with the offerings?”
“I think he’s giving me another chance,” Tye whispers, a tiny, glistening drop beading at the corner of his eye. “He thinks you are worth it.”
“And that you are.” I wrap my arms around Tye’s neck, my brows furrowing. “Though I’m not sure what to think about a seven-hundred-pound busy-body tiger playing matchmaker. Where are we going anyway?”
Tye points his chin at the river, where a circle of stones forms a basin several paces from the shore. The water inside the stones lies stiller than its rushing brethren, suggesting some isolation from the main river’s currents—but certainly not from its temperature.
“I think the tiger got the brains of the duo. At least he brought me to a nice dry cave,” I say, waiting for clarification. When Tye strides into the water instead, I shriek, digging my heels into his backside to find purchase higher on his body. “Not. Funny.” My words escape lungs that are already seizing with the cold. I start struggling to get away from the male but then think better of it. If I got down now, the water would only come up higher on me. “I’m going to kill you. Kill, kill, kill.”
Tye chuckles, cringing slightly as a rogue wave soaks him further. The warrior’s wet clothes cling to his muscles, showing off lithe lines that bend and flex with every controlled shift of weight. A tiger made fae. I bury my face in Tye’s neck, inhaling his clean, male scent. Heat from his body roars into mine despite the wetness, as his confident steps brave the waves all the way to the little circle of stones.
I feel Tye’s magic wake the instant we step into the basin, his hand skimming the surface of the water. Power ripples from his core, gradual and controlled, until the first wisps of steam rise into the air, the water slowly giving way to Tye’s touch. Taking a deep, cautious breath, I inhale the warm fumes and taste the hint of seaweed rising with the steam. A moan escapes me as I borrow my face deeper into Tye’s shoulder.
A sudden, delicious hardness presses back against me in answer.
Finding a ledge, Tye lowers me into the exquisitely warm water, the stones dutifully protecting the oasis from the splashing cold beyond. I shimmy to settle lower in the—
A sharp pain scatters my pleasure and I flinch, clamping my palm over the livid bruises on my shoulder. Deep breath. I repeat the instruction to myself in hopes of my lungs obeying, while the wakened flesh screams its protest.
Crouching in front of me, Tye strokes my hair. “I know it hurts,” he whispers, making no motion to cover his own stab wound. “Let me see the damage.”
“I’m all right.” I swallow, trying to hide the pain.
“Aye, well, I was planning on taking your shirt off either way.” He smiles roguishly, but his emerald eyes betray his worry. Without waiting for a response, the male reaches forward to unbutton my tunic, working the silver clasps apart one by one. If his shoulder screams at him for it, none of it shows in the strong lines of his focused face. His mussed hair stands up in fiery tufts, and I run my good hand through it as he works, making his breath come slightly faster.
Click. Click. Click.
My own breath stalls as Tye opens the last clasp and pushes the wet fabric off my shoulders, pressing a kiss to a scratch at the base of my collarbone, the side of my neck, the top of my ribs. His hands slide down my arms, massaging the aching muscles until I remember how to breathe. When my body finally relaxes beneath his gentle touch, Tye unwinds my chest wrap to let my breasts
tumble free against the burbling water.
Cupping a breast in each hand, slowly, almost reverently, Tye looks into my eyes, his own burning with intensity. So different from the other times he’s touched me.
I’m breathless, almost nervous. After wanting him for so long, I’m still marveling at the realization that Tye has wanted me too. All this time. That it was the depth—not lack—of his feelings for me that kept the male away.
“May I take your mind off the pain?” he asks, his thumbs brushing along my peaked nipples.
Zings of sensation shoot from my breasts all the way to my toes. I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry despite the salt water and the steam. My mind fights for clarity against the insistent throbbing in my sex and loses.
“Was that a yes?” Tye murmurs.
“What was the question?”
“This.” Tye’s lips descend upon mine, his tongue deftly slipping into my mouth and coaxing my own into a deep, consuming kiss that has me moaning against his mouth. His scent surrounds me, his delicious taste and warm lips. With the next heartbeat, the male’s hand slides to tangle in my hair, his grip tightening to the edge of pain, which somehow magnifies the pleasure of his thumb stroking my nipple. I can’t move, as if held in shackles by some new brand of magic, unable to think beyond my growing need.
I melt into Tye, my hips pressing forward in search of his hardness. My mind numbing to all thought but the gripping tension coiling through my body. I rake my hand across Tye’s muscled back and he growls, his kiss deepening with voracious hunger. His tongue rolls over mine, no longer sweet or playful but carnal enough to wake each of my nerves. To steal my breath.
This time, when Tye releases me, my swollen lips tingling from the loss of his, I’m so engulfed in the haze of his essence that Tye grips my shoulders just to keep me from toppling over. Stars. The things this male can do with a kiss alone . . .