“She doesn’t shift,” the lion man said.
Eve turned back to him and bit her lip. “King?”
The man chuckled, a deep, rich sound. “I always was fond of the name you gave me. Though, in the human world, I am simply Cade.”
“Oh,” Eve breathed, unable to think of any other way to respond.
Cade stood and stretched his back. Eve turned her eyes politely away from his naked body and he chuckled again. Hearing him clear his throat to get her attention, she turned back to him. He held out his hand for her to take.
“I’d like to thank you for caring for us as you have. Many of the shifters here stay only because of you.”
“There are more of you?” Eve asked.
“Yes, just under half the population I believe. Finn, ah Pouncer to you, actually is trying to buy the Preserve. You saved him from a--”
“A hit and run,” Eve finished. “His back was fractured and we didn’t think he’d walk again. We always wondered how he got on the highway.”
“Shifters have a knack for healing quickly,” Cade answered with a nod. “It kind of goes along with the whole immortality thing.”
Immortal? Viktor was immortal? Unable to hold back, Eve asked, “Do you know where Viktor went? The black panther?”
“No. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him,” Cade said. “But, if you like, I’ll spread the word you’re looking for him.”
Without giving her time to answer, his body began to grow with fur. Rolling his neck, he folded over onto all fours, once again becoming a lion. King tilted his head and let loose a series of roars. The lioness ran back to stand by his side. When he finished, Eve numbly nodded her head at him and shut the cage door. The lion watched her, seeming to smile.
Eve slowly made the rounds to all the pens, calling out for an introduction. Some shifted right away, some hesitated before revealing themselves, and some didn’t change at all. Eve was amazed by just how populated her Preserve really was. Most thanked her for her care, some made suggestions as to what the other cats needed, and others simply nodded and shifted back without words.
Finn, the mountain lion she called Pouncer, greeted her with a warm, affectionate hug. He was glad that he was finally able to reveal himself to her, for he was indeed buying the Preserve. It was his intent to turn it over to her complete care and to hire whatever staffing she needed. She was known as a heroine to the shifter kind and they were all more than willing to donate money and time to her glorious cause. They had a long talk about shifters and humans before she finally left him to his supper.
By the end of the talk, she wore a small smile. Stopping by the security booth, she destroyed the tapes from the day to hide any evidence of the shifters’ presence. Then, her smile fading slightly, she went home to her lonely office.
Chapter Eight
“He is your mate,” Cade said simply, looking up from her office couch where he sat with Finn. Eve blinked. She hadn’t said anything. Cade grinned, wiping a bit of mustard off the side of his mouth with the back of his hand. Both men wore clothes and were completely demolishing the hamburgers she had gotten for them from a local fast food restaurant.
It was late evening and the staff had been sent home. It turned out that they really had no need for security on the Preserve, being as they had a high population of shifters who were more protective and more effective than any security guard she’d ever hired.
“Viktor,” Finn clarified with a small mischievous grin she was becoming to know in him. His blue eyes sparkled. “He is your mate. That is why you have that look in your eyes.”
“Mate?” Eve tried to dismiss with a wave. “I … I hardly know him.”
Cade and Finn both chuckled, shaking their heads.
“Things are not so complex in the wild,” Cade said. “It is why so many of us choose to stay away from the complications of being human. As a cat, if you are hungry you eat. If you are tired, you sleep. If you are threatened, you fight. And, if you love, you mate for all eternity.”
“But, we aren’t mated,” Eve protested weakly. “I mean, I never said I love him.”
The two men laughed harder.
“Whether you say it or not doesn’t matter, Eve,” Finn said. He wiped his hand on a napkin and wadded his trash into a ball. Tossing it at a nearby trashcan, he smiled as he made the basket. “If it’s true, it’s true.”
“How can we mate forever when I will die and he will live on? It doesn’t make sense.” Eve sighed, looking miserably at her new friends.
“Eve, you’re one of us now,” said Finn, almost as if he was surprised she hadn’t figured it out for herself. “It’s how we knew we could reveal ourselves to you. We can sense our own kind.”
“But, I’m not … I can shift?”
The men laughed again and she frowned.
“No, but you’re mated to a man who can. Your life is combined with his. Since he is immortal, so too are you,” Cade said with a delicate shrug.
“Is that the way it is between Mia and you?” Eve asked, thinking of the lioness. “She will be yours forever?”
Finn really started laughing. Cade turned red. “No, she’s … we don’t....”
“Shifters do not mate with cats,” Finn allowed, still laughing. “We merely feel a kinship with them.”
“Well, I guess I can take the birth control out of your food then. It would save quite a bit of money,” Eve said, thoughtful. Finn only laughed harder. She made a face. “I give it to you as well.”
Finn’s face fell and he looked down as if she had kicked him in his manhood. It was Cade’s turn to laugh.
“You said I had a look,” Eve said. “What look do I have?”
“The look of your heart dying.”
Eve froze, her eyes widening as she whirled around to her bedroom door. Viktor leaned against the frame, a sexy smile hesitant on his lips. He looked as if he’d been standing there for some time. Suddenly, she understood just what Finn and Cade had been laughing so hard about.
“Wh--how?” Eve couldn’t move. Her heart beat a violent rhythm in her chest.
“I know because I too carry the same feeling,” Viktor said softly.
Eve was vaguely aware of her two friends standing next to her. Finn touched her shoulder and said, “He came while you went to get food. Since we recognized your mark on him, we thought it was all right to let him in.”
Eve nodded. She couldn’t take her eyes off Viktor. The door to the office opened and closed, leaving them alone.
“How … where … why?” she tried to reason. Then, acting on pure instinct, she ran forward and leapt into his arms. She was a woman starved for her man. Her lips parted and she kissed him, driving him back towards the bed.
Viktor made a weak sound as he landed on his back. She pounced on him, straddling his waist between her thighs. Hungrily, she tore at his shirt, ripping it from his shoulders. Her mouth worked its way from his lips, journeying over his strong shoulders, kissing his solid chest, down to the indention of his navel. Lightly, she licked him. His body tensed, stiffening beautifully beneath her as her fingers worked the button to his jeans.
She worked his cock free from the confines of denim. Her lips parted, eager to continue. She’d missed his taste so much.
“No, Eve, wait,” Viktor said, grabbing at her arms to get her attention. She blinked, not wanting to come out of the daze she was in. “We should talk first.”
“Mmmm, no, we should definitely do this first.” Her tongue flicked out to tease the tip of his shaft. Viktor groaned, helpless against her pleasurable torture. She took him into her mouth, sucking him gently, nipping lightly, caressing him with her tongue and hands until he couldn’t stand it. Only when he was pleading for mercy, did she let up.
Crawling off him, she stripped from her clothes, not caring that he watched her every move. She was empowered by his desire for her, by the rigid power pulsating in the veins of his cock. Her slit was soaked with her need, nearly dripping as she tugg
ed the jeans off his hips.
Slinking up his body, Eve dragged her nipples over his calves and thighs, budding them into hard peaks as jolts of desire worked their way into her blood. She stopped to once more lick kisses to his shaft before continuing her journey up to his lips. Their mouths slanted together in a deep, searching kiss.
Without breaking contact, Eve lifted her body over him and thrust down, slamming his heavy length hard into her. Her muscles jerked around his enormous cock, remembering the feel of him, squeezing him tight within her hold.
“Ah, baby, yeah,” he groaned, parting from her mouth. His fingers moved over her back and waist, only to grip her hips and jerk her further along his shaft until she was seated tight against his pelvic bone. “Oh, fuck, yeah.”
Eve loved watching the pleasure on his dark face. She knew in her heart that Finn was right. Viktor was her mate. She hadn’t felt whole without him. She understood that now. The idea of him leaving again tore at her heart. She wanted to speak, but the passionate aim of her body took control and she knew she’d need to find release before she could form a coherent thought.
She pulled up only to have his grip slam her back down. Eve cried out as every nerve in her being tingled in approval. Pushing up, she used his chest for leverage as she began to pump her hips against him. She rode him like a woman possessed, as she slid his cock in the juices of her body.
Her fingernails gripped his chest, digging into the hard muscles she found there. Her hips rocked fast and hard and so very deep, growing in speed and intensity as the fire ignited between them. Viktor’s primal grunts of pleasure joined her wild screams. His hands left her hips, reaching to pinch her nipples and massage her breasts. Eve growled in feminine approval. Her hips worked harder as she rode him. Her own fingers found her clit, circling the sensitive nub with frantic pulls, as she fought to obtain the brilliant surrender of her climax.
“VIKTOR!”
Her scream pierced through her body just as the rampaging tremors of her release exploded in her thighs, running rampant through her form as she stiffened and convulsed around him. Viktor’s grunt turned into a full cry as his seed shot into her womb.
Eve dropped down along his chest with a heavy sigh, purring contentedly. “I missed you.”
Viktor tensed. His fingers lifted to push the strands of her blonde hair from her face to study her. “Only because of this?”
“No, well, this is great.” She grinned, settling her hand on his chest. He was still buried deep inside her and she didn’t feel like ever moving. “But, because I love you, too.”
A wide smile formed over his lips as he pulled her body up to lie next to him. Draping his leg over her hip, he cradled her to his chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about me sooner. At first I couldn’t shift to do it, and then … Truthfully, I didn’t want you to be embarrassed about talking to me.”
Eve’s face colored. Viktor kissed her soundly before she could pull away. He hugged her tighter and groaned as if in torment.
“No, never be embarrassed. You nearly drove me mad. I swear I healed by willpower alone just so I could make love to you,” Viktor said. He kissed her temple, her cheek. “Just so I could live out every one of your fantasies with you.”
Eve chuckled, suddenly not feeling so self-conscious when she heard his approval. “So that was you, that night before we officially met at the banquet?”
“Ah,” Viktor chuckled. Eve loved the sound of his accent as it rolled over her in pleasant waves, making her desire him anew. She doubted she’d ever get her fill of him. “It was. I tried to stay, but it took all my energy to shift and I couldn’t hold it.”
“And the tiger?” Eve asked. “He was one of your kind as well?”
“His name was Bartel. He was young, wild. He had no care for any life but his own. I stopped him from raping a woman outside a bar about a year ago and he wanted revenge for it. He stabbed me in the back and left me for dead.”
“So there is no more danger?” she concluded.
“No, no more danger,” Viktor said. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you try to send me away again.” He growled. “I planned on giving you time to adjust, but now that you know the truth, I am never going to let you go. You’re stuck with me.”
“You won’t mind living here at the Preserve?”
“No, in fact Finn has given me permission to build us a house right here in this very spot. I figure we can start construction right after the wedding.”
“Wedding?” Eve gasped, her eyes growing round.
Viktor grinned. His hands began to stir against her. Before she knew what was happening, he flipped her over and began nipping at the back of her neck. His hand strayed down to grab a full cheek in his palm. Squeezing her ass, he whispered in her ear. “I see you need some more convincing before you’ll agree to be my bride.”
Eve whimpered as he fitted his legs between her thighs and spread her wide.
“Do not worry, love.” Viktor said, rubbing his cock into her moistening pussy and up the cleft of her lovely ass. “I know every one of your fantasies. And I know just how to make them all come true. By the time I’m done with you, all your doubts will be gone.”
The End
Animal Instinct Page 6