by Becca Dale
Humor sparkled in his eyes. “In the clan or the tribe or all shifters?”
“The clan—wait… Are there other kinds of shifters?”
He chuckled and dropped a kiss on her head as if she were a naive child. “About a thousand in the clan. Maybe ten thousand Wyenko worldwide. I haven’t a clue how many total shifters there are. Too many to count.”
The large numbers declared his story false. Relief washed over her in a comforting wave as she realized he was messing with her. “Liar.” She smacked him on the chest and laughed. “I can’t believe I’m so gullible. You actually had me going. No way could that many shifters roam among us. Someone would notice.”
“They do. Where do you think legends of werewolves and vampires shifting to bats come from?” Ja tucked her hair behind her ear with a grin. “Even Bigfoot can be linked back to a Yetan shifter. Myth stems from fact more often than not.”
That actually made sense to some extent. More than most of the rest. “Right. Then are there a bunch of people like me running around ignorant of their abilities?”
“Doubtful. Those born in human form usually don’t live into adulthood. You are a rare and blessed gift.”
She snorted as she tried to rise. “Like a white buffalo.”
Ja laughed and pulled her close. “I’d hardly call you a buffalo. An eagle, maybe.”
She wiggled to get away where she could think, but he swatted her butt gently. “Sit still until we’re done.”
With a huff, she settled against his chest and traced the smooth lines of his muscles careful to avoid the angry red scar on his shoulder. “How did you get into all of this?”
“Your parents died protecting you, but before he gave in to blood loss, your father carried you to my mother’s den and left you with me. He commanded that I care for you and protect you from those who would kill you. I had barely passed my thirteenth year.”
Unexpected sorrow lanced through her chest renewing a nearly forgotten ache. “How could he just leave me like that?”
He stroked her back with tender comfort, kneading the tight muscles at the base of her neck. “He had no choice. Everything was in turmoil. I’m not sure he knew who else to trust. Canar understood that I would give my life to protect his daughter.” Anger flashed in his eyes, but he reined it in and forced a reassuring smile. “The king and his mate lay dead, and the rest of us were forced to submit to Rork. My family refused to reveal your location. Unfortunately, we could not keep you with us. As a member of the old royal guard, my father was imprisoned, and mother had no food for such a tiny girl cub. In this form you could not have survived without the power of your father’s position to protect you. For your sake, I carried you to a church and left you. I kept tabs until your tenth summer.”
The pain in his words tugged at her heart, and she snuggled closer to his solid heat. “My parents—adoptive parents—moved around a lot after that. I lived in six states in the next eight years.”
“Were they good to you?”
“They loved me. Mom used to say that when God found out my birth mother couldn’t take care of me, He left me on the church steps as a special gift for my mom and dad.”
He brushed a fleeting kiss over her forehead. “I feared I’d never find you, or that Dar would get to you first.”
Hannah needed to believe more than her doubts could overcome. She shifted to face him. “Tell me about my father, about them. All of it, Malachi.”
He growled low in his throat. “I’d prefer my true name from your lips, Kya.”
The gentle reminder sent after ripples of pleasure through her, but she forced herself to ignore desire in favor of knowledge. “Tell me about them, please, Ja.”
He set her to the side and rose to stare into the forest. “Your father, Canar, ruled wisely. He treated his people with respect. Your mother did the same. Had anyone suspected Rork’s treachery, we would have stopped him. With Canar dead, the clan had no choice but to accept his cousin’s right to rule. Rork’s son, Dar, made it his life’s goal to find and destroy you before you could return to usurp his father’s position. Dar intended to rule without loose ends.”
Anger overpowered grief. Dar had helped kill her parents and had tried to kill both her and Ja. The buzzards are welcome to him. Pushing aside the nasty thoughts, she walked to where Ja stood so she could read his face. “So, now that Dar is dead?”
He glanced at her then away. “Nothing. As long as his father remains in power, the clan suffers.”
“That doesn’t seem right. If Rork seized power, why can’t someone else take it from him? Are they all such cowards?”
His shoulders stiffened as if she had insulted him personally. Ja shook his head. “Only those of the blood can rule unless there are no more.”
“And I am the last?”
“Yes. Unless Rork breeds another child, but he has failed to do so after more than twenty years in power.”
If what he said were correct, she stood on the edge of something greater than she could have imagined. She also felt like he had painted a giant target on her chest. “If this is all true, what if he and I both die?”
“Then the clan would be vulnerable to takeover.”
Ja shifted to stare through the tree limbs. His jaw tensed as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. Power radiated from him. Such strength. Rork was older, weaker. He had to be. His son had been Ja’s age. No matter how influential, he would not defeat her Ja. No one could hold out against him. Not even me.
Oh God. What if he was no better than the man he called his enemy? He could crush her, rip her throat out and leave her to bleed. Could he seize control with her death? Is that what he really wanted? Panic screeched through her brain like a siren, but she had to know. “If the bloodline ended, would you step up then?”
“I would not leave them without protection for long.”
He would take the throne if the bloodline died. She and one old man would not stand much chance. Still she pushed. “Eliminate me and you can rule, but not while I’m alive. So why not kill me? Here, where no one would know the truth.”
His snarl paralyzed her momentarily. She had literally asked for death. Strong fingers closed on the back of her skull and pulled her head back. Her throat lay exposed to his whim, but he did not attack. Instead, he forced her to look at him. His sharp eyeteeth gleamed white and dangerous. “You are mine to protect, given to me by the king. I do not take that duty lightly.”
Confusion and rage flared through her chest. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that he had a chance to kill her but didn’t. Only one word registered. “Duty? You’re a knight in black-furred armor, and I’m simply your assignment?” She squeezed her eyes closed against the sting of his words. He hadn’t been in her life long enough for his opinion to matter, but her chest ached as he crushed her foolish emotions. She cared about, perhaps even loved, the man whose voice soothed her in the night, the one who aroused her body and soul to passions she’d never known before. Being his responsibility wasn’t enough, not when she needed so much more. “I don’t want obligation, Ja. I free you from any promise my birth father forced on you.”
His hand gentled in her hair, but he did not release her. “Look at me, Kya.”
She opened her eyes when the silence grew thick. “Just leave me alone. This—you, me, everything—it’s too much. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
“Aw, love. Don’t shut me out.” He wiped a tear from her cheek and pulled her in for a tender kiss that lifted a bit of the weight from her heart. “Initially, I wanted to protect you for your father and the clan, but when I found you, again, I thanked the stars for Canar’s gift.” His gentle smile cajoled her to believe. “What I feel began with a duty to keep you safe but has become a selfish desire. When you bravely helped a wounded animal, which was foolish as hell by the way, I knew you would not fail your people. That strength combined with your beauty drew me in long enough to know you. Now nothing exists beyond your hold on me.” He tugged
her closer and rested his forehead against hers a moment.
She breathed him in like oxygen, memorizing his scent.
“You have become my soul, Kya.”
Tears burned as she studied his striking eyes. “Do you mean that?”
His mouth found hers in a kiss far more gentle than those they’d exchanged before. When he pulled away, a half smile tilted the corner of his mouth. “You weaken me. Such a flaw would shame me before others.”
She brushed his hair from his face. “Would it be so bad to love me?”
He growled. “Weakness equals suicide, but I’ll not leave you. Believe that. If you choose to rule, I’ll stand beside you. If you walk away, I’ll follow.”
“And leave the clan to Rork?”
He shrugged as if he didn’t care, but honor and responsibility radiated from his soldier’s stance. “There are others who could keep them safe.”
“Would they? If a member of the blood exists, would they step up?”
“Maybe not.”
She touched the muscle that jumped in his jaw. “You wouldn’t abandon your clan to such a fate.”
A wicked grin flashed across his full mouth. “I’m hoping you won’t either.”
Kya couldn’t help but smile back. “Say I believe you. Not that I am certain I do, but let’s assume I did. Could I take control to save your people?”
“They’re your people, too. You couldn’t do it alone, but the majority will support you when the time is right.”
“Why not now? If the situation is so bad, why leave the others to suffer if you can fix the problem?”
His eyes darkened to near forest green. “I told you. The clan won’t support a coup without a royal to replace Rork.”
“I thought that was the point of dragging me into this.”
“You’ll soon be in no condition to fight for anything beyond sleep.” When she didn’t say anything, but waited for him to continue, Ja scowled. “You carry my son or daughter within you.”
Her hand flew to the mark on her neck. He had come to her bed. Memories of Ja’s hard body on hers sent a shiver though her. The incredible stretch as she accommodated his girth. His hot demand in her ear, Admit you are mine, as he drove into her virgin pussy again and again. The hot surge of his cum as it pulsed inside her to flood her unprotected womb. She gasped aloud. She had not considered the possibility of pregnancy because she had not believed her night lover was real. How could he know what she did not? “I haven’t missed a cycle.”
“You will. You conceived the first time we came together.”
“How could you know that?”
He chuckled. “I could smell your heat, little one. It’s unlikely my seed didn’t take.”
Her cheeks burned. “It’s not nice to tell a lady she stinks.”
“I didn’t say that.” He pulled her in for another kiss, more possessive than the last. “The sanctuary had become my last hope. When I topped Granite Point, I knew I’d found you.”
She laughed in disbelief. “That’s almost three miles away.”
“The trees masked the air so I couldn’t scent you earlier.”
“Are you trying to tell me that people can smell me from further than that? Ewww.”
He squeezed her hard and grinned. “Not all people but your people. A male can sense a female up to five miles away, farther if she belongs to him.”
“Do you at least like the way I smell?”
He buried his nose against her throat and inhaled. “Clean and fresh with a hint of wild clover. Nice.”
“And other times?” She didn’t really want him to tell her she stank, but if he lied to her, what else would he lie about?
He groaned. His hands found her waist then slid lower to cup her hips and press her against the solid rod growing evident beneath his jeans. “Other times you smell of need, musky and sweet at the same time. I want to sink my tongue inside you and taste your essence. Mount you and take you as you were meant to be taken. Mark you so completely that no one else would dare claim what belongs to me.”
She moaned. Images of Ja driving into her pushed away all thoughts beyond him. He slid one broad palm between her thighs and urged her to open for him. He cupped her mound through her thick jeans but she might as well have been naked. Moisture flooded her vagina and soaked the denim as he worked his fingers in long, smooth strokes.
His lips traced the sensitive line from her ear to her shoulder while he destroyed the last of her barriers. “I can smell you right now, Kya. Not like before. It’s better because it’s my touch that makes you wet, not some primitive need to continue the species. Tell me you want me, little one. Make me believe.”
Her heart jumped in her chest, and shivers coiled in her stomach. How could he doubt the effect her had on her? Every cell in her body desired him. “You make me insane, Ja. I can hardly breathe when you’re near.” She traced her fingers down his solid chest and lower, edging slowly toward his zipper. “I want you.” She hesitated then. How could she express the way he made her feel? How could anyone explain her fiery desire to be near him? “I want you in my life, my arms, my body.”
Ja growled low in his throat. Suddenly, her jeans opened along the seam and two fingers pushed between her swollen labia. The intrusion made her gasp. “How?”
He chuckled as he worked her tender flesh. “Sharp claws, remember?” His thumb pushed the torn material aside and found the quivering nub at the juncture of her thighs.
Lightening curled and snapped in her abdomen.
He groaned and pushed her back a step. “Touching you gets me too hot, too fast. Strip for me, love. Show me your sweet body.”
“Here?”
“Now.”
Somehow, undressing for him seemed terribly intimate. Before when they’d come together, she’d been driven by the need to prove he was alive, but now the urgency had eased. Butterflies teased her stomach as she hesitated.
He rolled her clit between his thumb and forefinger, pulling gently, then more firmly until little ribbons of pleasure danced in her blood. “I ache for you. Please, little one?”
She couldn’t say no when he asked like that. She moved from the seductive caress of his hand and pointed toward the tree he had leaned against earlier. “Sit and give me a second.”
He grinned but did not comment as he settled against the broad trunk.
Unsure of where to start, she bit her bottom lip then straightened her shoulders and faced him. “I’ve never done this before.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. “Good, then I won’t have to kill some poor bastard.”
She hesitated a moment longer before she slowly unbuttoned her shirt and eased it over her shoulders. She kept the edges together, making him wait.
His stare practically set her clothes on fire and primitive power flashed to her core.
With a smile she allowed the top to slide lower. Her nipples peeked above the material and hardened under his steady gaze.
Ja snarled and sat straighter. “Touch your tits for me, Kya. Show me what you like.”
His throaty command eased her embarrassment. Slowly, she allowed the shirt to drift to the ground, then trailed her nails across her stomach and upward until she brushed the bottom curve of her breasts.
His hands clenched, and he licked his lips with a wicked grin. His teeth pushed on his lower lip.
She pinched her nipples lightly between her fingers and thumbs, rolling them for Ja’s pleasure as well as her own.
His eyes narrowed emphasizing their almond shape. “Now the rest.”
She turned her back to him and watched over her shoulder as she released her zipper. The heavy denim material caught on her hips until she pushed her jeans down and stepped from the pant legs. She never took her attention off him. Her ass lifted as she bent forward. “Can you smell me now, Ja? Can you see how wet you make me?”
His feral purr rumbled low, stroking her skin as surely as a caress. “Spread your legs and finger your slick pussy for me, Kya
.”
Embarrassment returned. His hot gaze burned it away. She opened her thighs and eased her fingers through the small snatch of tawny-colored hair and into her dripping slit. Stroking herself felt wicked and sensual, especially with his focus on her, but she craved his skilled touch. She hesitated. “Are you going to make me do all the work, big guy, or mark your territory like the true king of cats?”
A strange look flitted across his face, and he rose to his feet with a scowl. He jerked his cock free from his jeans. “Suck me first. Prove that I am the one you belong to.”
Kya could have said no. He wouldn’t demand anything she didn’t want, but his sexy voice sent need pulsing between her legs. The desire to taste him, to feel the silky skin of his cock on her tongue, melted her inhibitions. With a soft groan, she straightened and turned toward him. He didn’t move. Lust and something she didn’t recognize darkened his eyes nearly forest green. She closed the distance between them and sank to her knees, supplicating herself to him and the raw passion he generated without effort.
Chapter Ten—Royal Reality
Ja watched Kya open her mouth and close her sweet lips around his cock. His breath hitched. Her tongue swirled around him, tasting, testing. His groin tightened, drew up, and ached as she sucked him like a commoner.
She’s born of kings.
King of cats she’d called him. Maybe she didn’t know she belonged with someone of the blood. Would she walk away as if he never existed the moment the clan demanded it of her or stand beside him? Whether Rork remained in power or not, they would see her mating with a soldier’s son as an insult to her linage. If he took her home like honor commanded, someone suitable would warm her bed. Her parents would have expected no less.
Still, he had claimed her and she had accepted—body and mind—she belonged to him until someone convinced her otherwise. He buried his hands in her long hair and pulled her forward, forcing his dick into the seductive cavern of her mouth. She gagged and shoved him away as she would eventually push him from her life. He might hang for crossing the line, but anger and possessive desire demanded he keep what he had taken. He tightened his hold pumping his cock deeper between her royal lips.