Hunted by a Jaguar
Page 31
He slammed the flat of his other palm against the demon’s broad chest, shoving him into the four behind him. The demon growled at him, a corona of fire around his irises warning Cavanaugh that he was close to changing, his horns on the verge of emerging and revealing what he was to the humans around them.
Cavanaugh snarled back at him, the club brightening as his eyes began to transform, turning silver. His blood pounded and every instinct he possessed roared at him to protect Eloise. He fought the fierce need to shift, battling his snow leopard form as it writhed beneath his skin, stirred by his hunger to rip the demon male to shreds with his claws.
The demon straightened to his full height, standing almost five inches taller than Cavanaugh’s six-foot-six, and stared him down. Cavanaugh didn’t flinch. He held the male’s gaze as it brightened too, beginning to glow red. One of the male’s friends muttered something and touched his shoulder, and the male looked away from Cavanaugh, glancing beyond him to the bar.
Cavanaugh could feel Kyter there, watching what was happening. His silent backup.
He appreciated the support from his boss, especially when the demons cast him one last glare before disappearing into the crowd. He remained still, watching them go, breathing hard to steady himself and calm his need to shift. He would be out of his job, and his home, if his boss had to explain to the local authorities how a snow leopard had suddenly appeared in Underworld.
When the demon males had moved to the edges of his senses, Cavanaugh became aware of his hand and the delicate arm it gripped. He became aware of her where she stood behind him, trembling, and not only because of fear. There was fatigue there too, and something else.
The same reason he was shaking inside?
He had imagined this moment a thousand times or more. It hadn’t gone exactly as he had planned and it had come too early, but life loved to screw with him and he would find a way to roll with it.
He drew down a deep breath, held it, and slowly turned to face her.
She lifted her eyes up to his, their striking golden-brown depths hitting him hard. He always had loved them, had been able to stare into them for hours while she talked to him, laughed, and smiled. They expressed all of her feelings.
Tonight they made him feel cold inside.
They were haunted.
Her pain was clear in them.
She dropped her eyes to her feet and he frowned at how she held herself, her free arm tucked against her chest. Defensive. Afraid.
The scars on her wrists caught his eye again and he went to touch them but she edged back a step, placing her free arm beyond his reach. He lowered his hand, not wanting to frighten her or make her feel uncomfortable. He wanted to do the opposite. He wanted to comfort her.
The club crowd closed in again, jostling him. The music pounded, hurting his ears and irritating him. He fought the deep need to flash his fangs at the people around them to drive them away from Eloise to remove some of her fear. He wanted to vanquish it all. His deepest primal instincts demanded he take her somewhere safe in order to make that happen. Somewhere she would no longer feel afraid. Somewhere quieter where they could talk.
Somewhere they could be alone.
He tugged her with him through the crowd, shoving everyone out of his way again as he headed for the bar.
“Someone cover my space?” he shouted over the din as he reached the end of the bar.
Kyter nodded, losing his gloomy air for a second, a look in his golden eyes as he dropped them to Eloise and then pinned them back on Cavanaugh. He would answer the jaguar shifter’s questions later. Right now, he needed to know what had happened to Eloise to bring her all the way out here, so far from home.
Had she come for him? Or had she come for a different reason?
His heart said to let it be him, but he didn’t dare hope that he was the reason she was here.
He pulled her to his left, into a shadowy corner of the club, and up to the door in the black wall that led into the back. He punched in the code on the silver panel, twisted the knob, and pushed the heavy door open. It was only then he released Eloise.
He held the door for her. She slowly passed him, her pack shifting with each wary step she took into the warmly lit large space that acted as a huge hallway, with doors punctuating the wall to his right that led to the gym, playroom and offices, and a metal staircase against the wall on his left that led up to the apartments for the staff. When she was clear of the door, he stepped through and let it swing shut behind him. It slammed, the sound echoing around the expansive pale room.
Eloise jumped and whirled to face him. The grey hood of her coat fell back with the motion, revealing her to him.
“Sorry,” he muttered and she dropped her eyes to her feet again.
Cavanaugh silently cursed her. When he had imagined their reunion, she hadn’t been so damned meek. She had been the woman he had known a decade ago, before shit had gone south. She had been as beautiful and radiant as she had been back then too, her eyes bright and not haunted, her skin pale and clear, not scarred around her wrists and dark beneath her eyes.
The sight of her and her behaviour clawed at him, filling him with a dark need to discover what had happened to her and take action against anyone who might have harmed her.
He shook with that need, a storm brewing in his heart, a dangerous tempest that needed a target—someone he could make suffer as Eloise clearly had.
A target other than himself.
Right now, he could only place the blame on his own shoulders and it tore him apart, ripping his heart to shreds and filling his mind with poisonous words, ones that stung and made him bleed.
Eloise would never forgive him.
Eloise would never be his.
Craved by an Alpha (Eternal Mates series #5)
Having turned his back on his snow leopard pride, Cavanaugh has been counting the days until he’s free of a role he never wanted—one that separated him from his fated female and stands between him and the future he craves with her.
Just days from the night he will finally be free to be with the low-ranking beauty who stole his heart, she walks back into his life and threatens to destroy everything he’s worked towards in the five long years they’ve been apart.
Eloise has travelled across continents searching for the male who was once her best friend and so much more to her, but was now her pride’s true alpha. Desperate to fulfil a promise to her kin to save them from the tyrant he left in charge, she convinces Cavanaugh to return to his pride, but as they journey to Bhutan, doubts bloom and old feelings resurface, tearing her between duty and her deepest desires and impossible dreams.
Will Eloise be able to resist the burning need that Cavanaugh reignites in her and remember her place in the pride? And can Cavanaugh find a way to save his kin and claim the future he craves with the woman he loves?
Available January 27th 2015
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try her Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her new Eternal Mates series. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampire
s, fae, demons, shifters, and more.
In 2011, five of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews and Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews. In 2012, she was awarded the GraveTells Author of the Year Award, and Heart of Darkness was announced as a 2013 Epic Ebook Awards finalist in the Paranormal Romance category. Many of her books receive five star reviews from readers and review sites alike.
To see her other novels, visit: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
Or sign up to Felicity's mailing list to learn about new titles, be eligible for special subscriber-only giveaways, and read exclusive content: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/newsletter.php
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PARANORMAL ROMANCE BOOKS BY FELICITY HEATON
Stories in the Eternal Mates romance series
Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince
Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King
Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar
Book 5: Craved by an Alpha (coming January 27 2015)
Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat (coming February 17 2015)
Book 7: Taken by a Dragon (coming March 10 2015)
Stories in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Book 1: Covet
Book 2: Crave
Book 3: Seduce
Book 4: Enslave
Book 5: Bewitch
Book 6: Unleash
Stories in the Her Angel romance series
Book 1: Her Dark Angel
Book 2: Her Fallen Angel
Book 3: Her Warrior Angel
Book 4: Her Guardian Angel
Book 5: Her Demonic Angel
Book 6: Her Wicked Angel
Book 7: Her Avenging Angel
Stories in the Vampires Realm romance series
Book 1: Prophecy: Child of Light
Book 2: Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea
Book 3: Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising
Book 3.1: Spellbound
Book 3.5: Reunion
Book 4: Seventh Circle
Book 5: Winter's Kiss
Book 6: Hunter's Moon
Book 7: Masquerade
Book 8: Hunger
Books 1-3 are also available in one anthology ebook: Prophecy Trilogy
Stories in the In Heat romance series
Book 1: In Heat
Book 2: In Heat: Mating Call
Stand alone paranormal romance books
Blood and Snow
Love Immortal
Ascension
Forbidden Blood
Heart of Darkness
Vampire for Christmas
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Craved by an Alpha - Chapter 1
About the Author
Paranormal Romance Books by Felicity Heaton
Copyright
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2015 Felicity Heaton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The right of Felicity Heaton to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First printed January 2015
First Edition
Layout and design by Felicity Heaton
All characters in this publication are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover by Felicity Heaton