“You’ve sweet talked me enough, Pietr. Who do you want me to find?”
“You know me so well my friend. I need you to reverse look-up a number.”
“Is this person dangerous?” Cirro asked and Pietr could hear the change in his friend’s voice as if a switch had been thrown. He was no longer smiling and Pietr could almost see his blue eyes going glacier in his tanned face. When he heard noise on the other end of the phone he knew his friend had run his hand through his short tawny locks, a nervous habit he had since they were kids. Cirro was a good Asfaleia, or protector, of their leap.
“It is my mate, Cirro.”
“Your mate? You’re shitting me?”
“I wouldn’t play about this. I think she fears the bond. She felt it but she ran.”
“Human then,” Cirro commented.
“It seems to be an ongoing phenomenon.”
“There aren’t many female leopards being born. At this rate we’ll have more human mates than anything. Unless we okay it for humans to be changed we won’t have many pureblood children in the future.”
“Humans can die during the change. You know that, Cirro.”
“Can you deal with the idea that you will only have your mate for the remainder of her natural life? That she will sicken and die as you live on without her for centuries?”
Pietr sighed, he didn’t want to think about that. Turning a human was anathema to his kind. To do so carried a death sentence with no questions asked. Of course he didn’t want to see his mate die. It would kill something in him to see it, but his mate was human. His brother Laius was the wereleopard king and Pietr was his second. He could not break those laws even if he wished it, though he didn’t. It wasn’t something he could think about. He would simply cross that bridge when he got there.
“Cirro, Cirro, Cirro. Only you could attempt to ruin the greatest night of my century-long life. Who knows, by time she is ready to go it just may be my time.”
“I am sorry my friend, but I deal in reality. We both know that you are Vasilias material if you wanted to be. You will live many years yet.”
“Cirro, get me the damn address before I lose my temper.”
“I have it already. Just wanted to get that out.” Cirro gave him the address attached to the number. Pietr didn’t say anything as he hung up.
Cirro had made his point. It was a valid one, but Pietr didn’t want to think of the end before they’d even had a chance to live. That was Cirro’s cross to deal with. Cirro’s greatest fear was that he would find a human for a mate. It was one of the reasons he barely left leap grounds. He was given a salary for his work and didn’t have to work outside the compound unless he chose to. None of them had to work, really. Many wereleopards made astounding amounts of money through their long lives and they passed on the wealth they’d acquired to their descendants. The Asfaleia was always protected and cared for by the leap, though. As the head of security the Asfaleia duty was to protect the Vasilias and Vasiliassa with their lives. Because of their potential sacrifice the leap made sure they wanted for nothing and had a team under them to assist in protection. Cirro hid within the leap, terrified of an end that was years away. Pietr didn’t want to be that man.
He punched the address into his navigation system and merged into traffic. He was not Cirro. He was a man who knew what he wanted and was willing to go after it. Selene had found herself at the top of the list and running scared was not going to change that. All it did was make the predator in him happy about the chance to hunt. The endgame was already determined by fate, but the road to that conclusion was theirs to choose. He was happy that she didn’t realize that quick capitulation would have marred their union. She’d done the one thing that would guarantee his undivided attention: she denied him. Such a wondrous thing to have a mate and have to give chase. He knew his eyes were reflecting the light around him as he drove, the pupils dilating until his silver eyes became rimmed black pools, allowing him to see the night.
He would catch her. Of that he was certain. And when he did he would never let her go. Selene couldn’t run far enough to escape him. Not in a million years.
Chapter Three
Selene relaxed into her seat as the cab drove her home. She lived about twenty minutes from the club but she hadn’t wanted to risk trying to call one of her friends to let her take their car or take her home. They would have tried to convince her to stay, or, even worse, sent Pietr out to give her a ride. Her friends, God love them, meant well but they didn’t understand the word no very well. They felt like she cloistered herself behind the walls of her job too much. Maybe they were right, but she just couldn’t relax. It was like she was waiting for something, someone, who was just around the bend. She could feel him on the edge of the horizon. She didn’t know how to explain it but this last year had been a study of self-love and realization. She’d grown up and now she knew what she wanted. She wanted passion, lust, love, need, companionship, and friendship. It was easy enough to find passion, lust, and even companionship. But it was need, true need, and love she was striking out on. She wanted the whole thing. She needed the whole thing. Tonight she had felt need. Lord knows she had.
Pietr had stormed her defenses without even trying. All he had to do was look at her and she had been lost. She could still see his vapor eyes, still feel the heat of his body against hers, and smell his scent on her body. Lust and need had blended until she was at a loss for words. She’d never been so taken by a man. His touch had electrified her, his gaze made her feel sexy, and his voice had made her wet. But lust and need weren’t enough. To meet someone under those circumstances meant that they would have bypassed getting to know each other to gain companionship and then love. It would have been a fling, and perhaps that was what terrified her. Pietr touched her in a way that she hadn’t been expecting. If all it turned into was a fling she was sure that something in her would have died. She just knew that any man who came after him would have paled in comparison. She couldn’t risk that. She couldn’t. She sighed, trying to push away her desire as the cab continued toward her home.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” the cab driver asked. He looked young, his sable hair cut almost military short. His chestnut gaze met hers in his rearview mirror from a face that looked barely out of his mid-twenties.
“I’m fine, it’s been a long night.”
“Looks like it. I know a short cut to your address. I can get you there ten minutes faster if you want me to take that.”
“That would be great,” Selene said with another heartfelt sigh.
She was tired. The cabbie turned down the next street, one she didn’t recognize but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t know all the streets in the city and a cabbie would. The cabbie turned again down a road that was darker and she sat up in her seat. There wasn’t much traffic on this street. She slid off her heel. There weren’t many places to hide a weapon in this dress but a steel-heeled stiletto would work. The cabbie turned down another street and they pulled back into traffic. She sat back feeling much more comfortable until a loud pop, a swerve, and they rolled back to the deserted street.
“Hold on, ma’am. Let me check the tire and then I’ll call Hub to get you another ride.”
The cabbie parked the car and got out before she could say anything. When he unfolded from the car he was taller than she expected. He would have been able to look over her head slightly. He wore jeans and a black sweater. He knelt down next to the back tire on her side and disappeared from her view.
“It can’t be helped,” he called to her.
“I can wait. It wasn’t your fault. I can wait for the next cabbie.”
“You could. Or…” He trailed off and she sat up straighter to talk to him.
“Or what?”
“This.” Faster than humanly possible the door was wrenched open and the cabbie crawled into the car. He didn’t look right. His young face was changing, melting. She didn’t know how else to explain it. The skin on his cheeks looked as if h
is cheekbones had disappeared. The skin hung down and started to split. She saw blood and fur. She could hear his flesh ripping and screamed. As quick as she could draw breath she screamed. He was so strong. She couldn’t get him to let go of her. She felt faint when his fingers extended and twisted until they were long, knobby things that didn’t look like they were real. The ends were tipped in thick black claws. Claws.
She screamed louder, punching at him, clawing at his skin. Under her nails the skins came off in clumps until he was covered in fur and his face was a demon come to life. Terror nearly stopped her from screaming but when he lifted up and she could see that a part of his anatomy was still very much human male she no longer had that problem.
“No!” she yelled, kicking and twisting.
“No one is going to save you,” he growled at her. His claws raked down the front of her dress and split the material like it was paper. She didn’t stop pelting him with blows to cover herself. If she gave up he would take more from her than her modesty. She clawed at his face, trying to find some weakness. When she felt his eye she dug her fingers in, feeling the orb pop and then the gush of fluids around her digits. Bile rose in her throat but she kept pushing. The demon roared, pulling back from her, but she held on.
“Let go you bitch!” He lashed out and his claws dug into the flesh of her right breast, ripping through meat as he pulled away. She whimpered, the pain too much to get enough air to cry out. He dragged her from the back of the cab. She lost her shoes, her feet bumping over the rough pavement. The demon grabbed her by her hair, jerking her painfully to her feet. He lifted her off the floor and when she looked at his face, one eye missing and the lid shut around the hole, she saw his face for what it really was. He looked like a great cat. He looked like a man mixed with a panther. He roared in her face, his sharp teeth only an inch from her face, his scalding breath bathing her face, and she felt then that she was crying.
“I’m going to rip your insides out and show them to you, and then I’m going to take your body in every way imaginable as you die.”
Ice. She was ice. It was more than fear. She felt like she was close to death, like every cell in her body was dying. She trembled in his paw as he drew his other arm back, preparing to strike at her stomach. A roar behind her filled the alley. The cat man holding her froze and then dropped her. She rolled on the pavement and watched as her blood spilled over the pavement, bright red in the night, while a giant leopard came rushing from the darkness. Its golden coat, covered in darker rosettes, gleamed in the shadows as if lit from the inside with the sun. It had to be at least four times the size of any leopard she’d ever seen in a zoo.
The large cat’s body compacted, muscles moving under its fur, and then leapt. Its body exploded into the air, the hind legs a straight line and together, the front legs open wide, claws fully extended. Its mouth was wide open, a roar erupting again, and landed in the cat man’s face. Its hind legs dug and left deep furrows in her attacker’s stomach, front legs wrapped around his body. When the cat man fell back she could see the cat that had saved her had clamped its mouth around the would-be rapist/killer’s neck. No matter how much the cat man struck or tried to move the other cat held on. Black spots filtered on the edge of her vision as the cat still dug into the cat man’s stomach with its hind legs until her attacker stopped moving. The cat that had saved her then twisted its head in a quick motion over and over again until the attacker’s head popped off. Disgust and fear welled up inside of her, but she just couldn’t bring herself to cry out. She was so cold, just so cold.
She didn’t panic as the cat stalked its way to her. It watched her, its golden eyes reflecting the night around her as it took each step. With slow, freeze-frame movements it got closer and closer until it was almost upon her. The cat hunched down, crawling to her the last couple of steps and then butted her chin with its head. When she didn’t react the cat sniffed down her body and then began to lick over the wounded flesh that was probably her breast. She felt the sting but didn’t react. Every raspy pass of his tongue hurt, but was oddly soothing. She lay there as the cat licked at her blood and wondered why she wasn’t afraid that it was going to try to eat her, or make more damage. She felt safe. She felt protected. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew the cat was trying to save her.
Too bad it couldn’t.
She wished that she could touch him. She wished that she could feel his coat and sink into it, gather his warmth, but she was so tired. She whimpered when he licked deeper into a wound and then stopped. He resumed after a second and she couldn’t feel the blood seeping from her anymore. He moved and sat next to her. She watched him glow, as if in a dream, until he was brighter than the sun, and she couldn’t see a thing. When she could see again he was Pietr, in all his naked glory, kneeling next to her. He looked down at her, his gaze worried. She wanted to say something like “un-fucking-believable” but knew she couldn’t.
“You are already cold, mikro,” he whispered, his fingers soft against her cheek. “I have to get you warm.”
He rolled her over and then lifted her into his arms as if she weighed no more than a feather. He took each step smoothly but each time his foot hit the ground it sent a shock through her system. He took her into the darkened alley and she now could see there was a car inside. He opened the door for her and sat her in the passenger side and covered her with a trench coat. It smelled of him, warm and sweet like cocoa. He opened the driver’s side door and then pulled on his pants and an undershirt that had been in the seat. She hadn’t had time to see much of him. He did every motion quicker than her eyes could follow.
He got behind the wheel, barefoot, and started the car. They sped out of the alley, still on the back streets, and she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She tried to tell him that she was grateful, that she was happy that he had come for her. She didn’t care that he seemed to have the same power as the thing that attacked her. She was just happy that in the end he had come to save her. And maybe, now that her life was ending, she could admit that she wished she hadn’t run away from him, that maybe he could have been what she wanted. But she couldn’t say any of that. She could only slip into the darkness, without uttering a single word.
She was so tired.
Chapter Four
Pietr drove as fast as he could toward Katafygio. The word meant haven in Greek and it was the compound for his wereleopard leap in south Texas. Everything in him was concentrated on getting his mate to safety. She was already terribly cold. The asshole had ripped into her with partially mutated claws. The only way a shifter could turn a human was to give them a mortal wound while in their partial form. If he had struck her when he was in complete leopard form she wouldn’t be going through the change, she’d just be dead. He supposed he could be thankful for that one thing from Selene’s attack, but it stretched him thin. If he didn’t get her to the leap to help her survive the change it might not matter anyway. She would need her leap’s heat to warm her, to heal her, and give her the strength to pull through on the other side. They would have to deal with her change and what that would mean to her life later. For now he was only interested in her survival. He grabbed for his phone.
“Cirro,” his friend answered after the second ring.
“We have a problem,” Pietr said without preamble.
“Your mate turned you down? It’s okay. She’ll come around. She has to.”
“She’s dying Cirro.”
“Explain.” Pietr told him as quickly as he could what had happened. He didn’t have to share the utter horror he’d felt when he’d sensed his mate’s fear over their tenuous connection. He believed it was only because he’d been heading toward her home on some back roads, hoping to beat her cab there, that he’d been close enough to feel her. Once they were mated no distance would keep him from sensing her but he thanked his lucky stars now. When he finished Cirro was cursing a blue streak and giving orders.
“I’ll send a clean-up crew to take care of the rogue. Your b
rother is not going to be happy. The rogues are getting worse.”
“Some are trying to purposely change humans into leopards to make them mates. They are desperate. I think he would have tried with Selene too but she’d hurt him.”
“How the hell did she do that?”
“She punched out his eye. That was done before I got there and I could smell the blood. She didn’t go down without a fight but it was probably enough to piss him off. He didn’t care about converting her then.”
“How far out are you?”
“I’m ten minutes from Katafygio. We’ll have to get everyone ready that we can. Her temperature has already dropped drastically.”
“We’ll be ready. I’ll have a kouarteto ready. I’ll hand pick them myself, Pietr. Bring her to us.”
“Thank you, my friend. One day I will repay this kindness.”
“Let’s hope not in this way.”
Pietr disconnected. Kouarteto meant quartet, and to make oneself responsible for someone’s quartet was a great honor. The quartet were the healers for the king, queen, and second of the leap. The four wereleopards would come at any time to provide around-the-clock heat and healing to their charge whenever the need arose. Cirro and Laius were two of Pietr’s quartet. They were all a part of each other’s quartet. Pietr was almost certain that Cirro would pull a rabbit out of his hat on this one.
For the many of the leap a quartet was chosen at birth from elders of the immediate family. Later, when the wereleopard gained friendships and alliances, the quartet was then changed. Selene, though, would come to her quartet much different. She hadn’t been born a shifter, nor did she have any close friends within that world. Her quartet, as his mate, would have to be comprised of the most trustworthy of the few precious women the leap had. Cirro would be sure to gather the four that best suited his mate. As his mate was made precisely for him, it could be assumed, at least superficially, that the women of her quartet would be ones he had some sort of friendship with. If she decided to change them later she could.
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