by Vonna Harper
“Maybe I’m crazy to be thinking this, but I’m going to say it anyway. When you died, a Chindi force was released. Not just a ghost spirit but a malevolent Skinwalker. That’s why you’re now half human and half cougar. Maybe, back when you were Ryan, you did something to enrage the Skinwalkers. Maybe—maybe it was denying your heritage.”
He was still staring at her, thank goodness. “Once they had hold of you, they decided to make you pay for not acknowledging that you were Navajo. What could be worse than being forced to exist the way you are now, belonging nowhere and accepted only by other Tocho.”
Her speech had given her a headache. She could only pray that Cougar’s continued silent stillness meant she’d gotten through to him. “Maybe I’m wrong about why you’re being punished, but I don’t think so. It had to be something that means a great deal to Skinwalkers. The scene I saw from your past when your foster parent tried to interest you in your heritage—why else was that revealed to me? You’d turned your back on your Navajo blood.”
Cougar’s tail lashed furiously. Her head screaming, she continued. “Maybe it was the same for Anaba, and the other Tocho. You’re all being made to pay for the same thing.”
Movement rippled along Cougar’s spine. She tried to tell herself a breeze was responsible. Then the ripple repeated. “What is it? Is this your way of telling me you agree?”
Cougar’s lips curled back to expose not just his fangs, but his gums as well. At first she believed he was trying to answer, but then something about his intensity changed her mind, that and his pricked-forward ears. He was listening to something.
Damn it, she’d forgotten about the rifle that had killed Anaba, and whoever had fired it. Like she didn’t know.
Shielding her eyes, she slowly turned in a circle. She’d paid little attention to where she was going when she’d been following Hok’ee. Now, spotting several familiar landmarks, she realized they weren’t far from where she and Garrin had set up camp. Garrin had shot what he’d believed was a wild animal. If he saw Cougar now—
“You can’t overpower him,” she insisted. “He’ll bring you down before you get close.”
The heavy tail lashed. If anything, Cougar exposed even more of his fangs. Most frightening, he lowered his body so his belly nearly scraped the ground in a stalking stance.
“No! Damn it, can’t I get through to you? Your claws and fangs are nothing against a rifle.”
Surely Cougar heard. He might have even understood, but he’d become a predator. He obviously had no intention of backing down. Shielding her eyes again, she looked in the same direction Cougar was focusing on. Much as she wanted to deny it, she couldn’t. A man was coming toward them, albeit a long way away.
“It’s him. My coworker.” She couldn’t say why she was whispering now. “He’s armed. He’ll shoot the moment he believes he has a decent shot. I know he will.”
It belatedly dawned on her that if she could make out Garrin’s scrawny form, Garrin would have no trouble seeing Cougar—or her.
Calling herself fourteen kinds of a fool, she hurried to Cougar’s side. Ignoring the warning in his powerful body, she touched his shoulder. The instant she did, the world she was in disappeared. She’d been pulled back in time and was once more within a few feet of the Anasazi house.
Then the stone walls evaporated.
19
Cougar growled, the low sound coming from the depth of his being. His tail continued swishing, and the hairs on his back remained on alert. His attention locked on Garrin.
This was pure predator. Maybe touching him had transported her back in time to where Anaba’s essence had been taken, but maybe the connection between Cougar and Anaba had been responsible.
Would there ever be anything like that between her and Hok’ee?
“Go. For God’s sake, leave. I couldn’t handle it if he killed you. No more deaths, no more!”
A faint shout tore her attention from Cougar. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest as she forced herself to focus. Garrin had lifted his rifle to his shoulder. He was close enough that she should have heard what he’d shouted, but maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.
“Run!” she repeated. She slapped Cougar’s side. “Now!”
A sound like death shattered her world. The echo seemed to last forever.
Cougar screamed. Under her trembling hand, his body tensed.
“No, damn it, no! Hok’ee! Don’t let Cougar take over. Run. Please, please, run!”
She was trying to decide what else she might say, what she’d have to do to get through to the man beneath the beast when Cougar spun in a half circle. Beautiful as always, he leaped forward. One, two, three strides and he was racing full out away from Garrin. Thank you.
“Kai!” Garrin called out. “Kai!”
Despite the mix of urgency, disbelief, and anger in Garrin’s voice, she couldn’t take her eyes off Cougar. Even as he faded into the distance she remembered his touch and the hot glide of his cock inside her. She hadn’t been alive until he’d walked into her life, and now he was gone.
Her pussy clenched. For a moment she nearly gave into the need to climax. Then because she had no choice, she faced Garrin. As soon as she did, reality surrounded her. Judging by his flushed cheeks and neck, to say nothing of how close he was, he must have continued running toward her while Cougar distracted her. His sweat smell nauseated her. She longed to wrestle the rifle out of his grip and beat him to death with it.
“What the hell was that?” Garrin gasped. “That cougar, damn it, I know I killed it. The one I saw just now, it couldn’t be the same beast I shot.”
Not bothering to respond to his curse, she glared. “Why the hell did you shoot?” she demanded. She felt as primal as Cougar had looked.
“Why?” Garrin still held the rifle as if he had every intention of using it as he tried to wipe his forehead on his forearm. “Are you kidding? That was a cougar.”
“I know it.”
“You—you were right beside—right beside. If you weren’t so close I would have—how is that possible? Why didn’t it kill you?”
“You think everything has to be about killing or being killed?”
Looking dumbfounded, he stared in the direction Cougar had gone. Then he looked down at where Anaba had lain. “It was going to attack,” he muttered. “I did the only thing I could.”
More likely Garrin had panicked at the sight of Anaba in cougar form. “Did you?” she snapped. “We’re suppose to make as small an impact on this area as possible.” The longer she was forced to look at him, the less she respected him. “That, in part, is why you and I were sent here ahead of the others. We were trusted to—”
“Don’t spew that bureaucratic crap at me, Kai! I’ve been part of academia a lot longer than you have.”
“And I’ve spent more time in the wilderness than you have. I understand animals, remember. Communicate with them. That’s what I was doing.”
“What the—I don’t believe you.”
“Then I feel sorry for you because it’s the truth.” Part of the truth.
When she’d first met Garrin, she’d concluded that he was a perfect fit for his job. A devote believer in “publish or perish,” he’d had several wordy articles published in professional journals, and was working on a book comparing modern archeological techniques with the early years, as if anyone cared. His office was crammed with books, papers, and trade magazines. From what she’d been told, students dreaded going into his office because he droned on and on about what they were convinced was the only thing he cared about, the archeological field.
She was beginning to suspect she’d been wrong about Garrin. There was a lot more to him.
“Cougar attacks are rare,” she pointed out, when the last thing she wanted to do was continue the conversation. “And they usually happen when the animals believe they or their turf is being threatened. Even though there’s no body, you say you killed one. Couldn’t you have just walke
d away?”
“Walked away? You have no idea what I’ve been through. Not—not knowing where in the hell you’d taken off to, or what might have happened to you.”
Garrin swore? She’d never suspected. Determined not to let herself be backed into a corner, she asked what he meant by what he’d been through.
“That’s none of your business,” he snapped.
“What? Garrin, there—”
“You’re hardly one to be asking me questions.” His lips thinned. “Where were you last night? And don’t tell me you got lost. With all these landmarks, a blind man could find his way to camp.”
They’d been so polite to each other since coming out here, too polite in fact. Now Garrin had obviously taken off his gloves and was itching for a fight, but why? Either that, or he was trying to turn the conversation in another direction. Perhaps most important, why wasn’t he demanding a remotely believable explanation of why she and Cougar had stood side-by-side, or continuing to insist he had killed Anaba? If the tables were turned, that’s what would be on her mind, not dodging questions about what she’d been up to.
Unless she had something to hide.
“I’m sorry if I worried you,” she said deliberately noncommittally. “Something became more important than where I slept.”
It didn’t surprise her when his gaze narrowed and he set his jaw. What was that something? his expression plainly asked.
“I need to change clothes. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I’m heading for camp.” Adding action to her words, she started in that direction. She’d barely begun when he grabbed her arm. Memories of Hok’ee’s easy and complete control over her threatened to distract her.
“Let me go,” she ordered, although she could probably break free.
“Not yet. Two things we’re going to settle first.”
“Oh.” Pasting on a I don’t give a damn look, she stared at his fingers on her.
“You’re damn right. If you think I’m going to let you get away with not documenting your activities, you’re wrong.”
I could say the same about you. “I don’t owe you—”
“The hell you don’t.” His hold tightened. “You’re not keeping anything from me.”
So that’s what this animosity was about? He believed she’d uncovered or come across something important. As for why he’d think that…“Why would I do that?”
“Maybe so you can grab the glory for yourself.”
“What? I’m not after glory. All I care about is communicating with—”
“With that cougar?” he finished for her. “Kai, I killed one. I know I did.”
“Then where is it?”
Releasing her arm, Garrin shook his head. He looked to be at such a loss for words that she nearly felt sorry for him. Then her mind snagged on the image of Anaba’s lifeless body, and the grief in Hok’ee’s eyes.
“Bright sunlight distorts things,” she offered. “You must have been a long distance from it. If you didn’t actually stand over it and—”
“I know what I saw. What I did.”
She could have demanded to know why he’d fired at one of nature’s creatures, but they’d only go around and around in this conversation he must be as weary of as she was. Talking to Garrin was the last thing she wanted to do, especially since she had no idea where Cougar was, what he was doing, and when Hok’ee would reappear.
This was insane. Her whole life was.
“All I know is there’s nothing here.” She indicated the ground. “Not even blood.”
Garrin recoiled, then leaned over and studied the earth. Her only explanation, which she wasn’t about to share with him, was that a Skinwalker, if that’s who had been responsible, had taken back everything of what had once been Anaba.
“What about the animal you were talking to?”
Garrin had whispered more than spoken. The poor man—he really was losing it. And she had to take advantage of his confusion. “It ran off when it saw you.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“This conversation you were having? What was it about?”
“We didn’t get very far, unfortunately.”
He opened his mouth, but instead of saying anything, he licked his lips. The way he was studying her, she sensed he wished she was anywhere except here. Something had definitely changed about the man, not that she couldn’t say the same about herself. Deeply weary, she started toward their camp. Garrin had been right about one thing. Thanks to the impressive and unique canyons, a person would have to work at getting lost.
Going by what her senses were telling her, he was following her. She tried but failed to dismiss the fact that he carried a weapon, and that he’d used it.
Hok’ee would protect her.
Hok’ee had turned her life on end, taught her things she hadn’t known about her body and heart. She’d worn his ropes, and if he’d come to her with fresh bonds, she’d let him place them on her. She’d handed him pieces of his past, and he’d given her his body as his gift. If that wasn’t proof that something rare…Rare? Except for having learned what turned her on, what did he know about her, and did he care?
Right now that didn’t matter. What did was that he’d protect her.
Return for her.
How would that happen, she pondered when she should have been thinking about the man behind her. Maybe Hok’ee would wait until she was asleep. He’d slip into her small tent and place his big hand over her mouth to keep her from crying out. The moment she knew it was him, she’d stop struggling.
They wouldn’t need to talk; their bodies would say everything that needed to be said. Even with remnants of Cougar clinging to the man, she’d take what she could get. She’d welcome him by opening her legs and guiding his cock home. There’d be no foreplay, and no thoughts beyond sex. He’d hit her hard and fast, and she’d hit back with the same wild frenzy. She’d drink from him and then drink some more, until she’d exhausted him. Then, shaking and done in herself, she’d curl up next to his warmth and fall asleep.
In the morning—
Why did there have to be a morning? She wanted sex and then more sex, to climax until her mind shattered and her pussy became too tender to touch. He’d give her a break, maybe finger-combing her hair and bruising her mouth with his rougher one. But then, watching her expression, he’d run his fingers over the length and breadth of her sex until the inner fire blazed. Maybe he’d finger fuck her this time.
Whenever she reached for his cock, he’d pull her hands off him and straddle her. His weight would rest on her thighs. Although only inches separated her thighs, he’d plunder her easily. At first she’d offer no resistance as one climax after another signaled his expertise with her body. Then once again, her heated tissues would scream for rest, and she’d press her legs together.
This time, however, there’d be no rest or recuperation. One moment she’d be under him. The next, he’d plant a knee between her thighs and force them wide. With a forearm pressing against her swollen breasts, he’d demonstrate his total mastery of her. No matter that she tried to roll away, no matter that she raked his forearm with her nails or tried to lift her head so she could bite, his hand would remain on and against and often in her cunt.
Capturing her clit, he’d drag it in one direction and then the other while she cursed and begged. Then, changing tactics, he’d release the hot nub, abandon it while he played with her sex lips. Whatever he wanted to do to them, it would happen. Pulling, tickling, rolling his finger pads over them would cause her to beg for relief. She’d split in two—half of her desperate to escape the assault on her sanity, while the rest rejoiced in being the center of his attention.
Simply keeping her highly stimulated wouldn’t be enough for him. From a secret place, he’d produce a pair of metal clips which he fastened to her sex lips. Then he’d haul her to her feet and command her to stand so he could see what he’d created. When he ordered her to place her hands be
hind her head, she’d obey without a whimper of protest.
Gathering the courage to look down at herself would take longer. She might still be working on it if he didn’t press against the back of her neck and force her chin onto her chest.
Gleaming gold chain dangled from the clips and nearly reached her knees. The clips themselves were large and exquisite. Her labia was buried beneath the ornamentation, trapped and throbbing.
“Walk,” he’d order.
“Please, I can’t.”
A slap to her right buttock would get her moving, and she’d step after him with her legs splayed, the chain swinging with each step. Every tug and jerk would force a moan. Tears would spring to her eyes, while tears of another kind leaked out of her. Everything was about sex, about her being reduced to his plaything.
“Walk faster.”
“Master, please, I—”
“That’s right, I am your master.” The words said, he’d take hold of the chain and haul her behind him. She’d waddle, knees bent outward, hands still on the back of her head, her juices pooling on the gold clips.
“This”—he’d shake the chain, causing her to moan in pleasure/pain—“is the connection between us. Maybe not the only one, but the one I choose for tonight. You want it, don’t you, Kai? Want everything I do to you, no matter how painful or demeaning.”
Demeaned? Did she really feel that way? It was hard to concentrate with sensations she’d never experienced or expected to experience swamping her. She was drowning in sex, and him.
“You aren’t answering me, Kai.” He’d shake the chain, then stop and haul her next to him. “You want this, don’t you?”
She’d been staring at him while hobbling after him, but she’d forced herself look again at what he’d done to her. Spring mechanisms had kept the restraints in place. She could have reached down there and released the pressure on the springs. As soon as she did, she would have been be free.
Or would she have?
“I need you, Hok’ee.”
“Just as I need you. You’re beautiful like this, I want you to know that. Exquisite in your captivity. Magnificent wearing my proof of ownership.”