Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(42)

"That's nice. Tell me the rest, Lyon."

He looked out over the river, then back at the path. Anywhere but her. Finally, his jaw set, and he met her gaze.

"The Ascension requires blood. And sex."

Kara's eyes widened as the word did a strange number on her pulse. "Sex? During the ritual?"

Lyon shrugged. "It's necessary. Only at the moment of sexual release is the body and mind fully opened. It's only at that moment that you'll be able to raise the powers of the Earth and make them yours."

She thought of the Pairing. How they'd been prepared to make her kiss them all. Them all.

"Sex with whom? How many times?"

"For goddess sake, Kara, we're not complete animals. One time. With your mate."

"With Vhyper." She went cold, imagining him forcing himself on her, into her, with the others there. With Lyon there. "I'm not having sex in front of eight men!"

"The rest of us won't watch."

"But you'll be there?"

"Of course. We have to be touching you when you raise the Earth's power in order to be renewed ourselves."

"Touching me?" Dear God, this was getting worse by the second. "Touching me where?"

"You'll be clothed, Kara," Lyon replied, his voice tight with strained patience. "In a ritual gown. Standing. We'll be kneeling, touching your feet or calves, heads bowed. Not watching. Your mate will enter you from behind."

Kara groaned. "You're making this up." They'd be right there, touching her legs, listening to every groan, every slap of flesh on flesh while she was mounted like some kind of… some kind of… animal. Her scalp crawled at the thought of Vhyper's hands on her, his penis pushing against her, forcing itself inside her tight dryness, because she would never be ready for him. Never.

Lyon threw up his hands in frustration. "This is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you wouldn't take it well."

"It's like some kind of frat-boy fantasy! You'll hear everything!"

Lyon scowled. "You wouldn't find it barbaric if you'd been raised Therian. We're shape-shifters, Kara. Part animal. Not a bunch of computer salesmen."

She flung her hands outward, mirroring his own frustration, and whirled away from him. "I can't believe this."

"Don't go anywhere."

She tossed him a heated glare and turned her back on him as she looked out over the river.

Lyon wished he could take back his words. He shouldn't have told her about the sexual nature of the Ascension, not this soon. She was far too human-minded for such truth. At the very least, he should have waited until after they were through with their work today.

They'd barely started, and already Kara stood at the far end of the stone, silhouetted against the brooding sky as she stared down at the Potomac, her back to him. The wind toyed with her hair, rippling the blue jacket that shielded taut shoulders.

For all her innate power and her Therian blood, she wasn't one of them, yet. The human world and morals had molded her thoughts and expectations. She needed time to accept the Therian ways, but time was the one thing they didn't have.

He stood, watching her, and raked his wind-tossed hair from his face. His timing might have been off, but she was right. The Ascension couldn't happen without a fully cooperative Radiant, and springing the sexual aspect of the ritual on her as they tried to ascend her would have been disastrous. At least this way she might get used to the idea by the time they got to it.

If she were his, he'd get her used to the idea. Goddess, but he'd enjoy getting her used to it. Bending her over, sliding inside her hot, wet sheath. Think of me. Only of me.

Blood rushed to his groin even as his stomach clenched with pain at the thought of kneeling at Kara's feet while Vhyper took her. How would he stand hearing Vhyper's groans and Kara's sexy whimpers as the passion rose between them? Listening to her cries as she came. Cries he'd come to love.

Goddess spare me.

He would survive it because he must, and thank the heavens and Earth he only had to be present for their coupling the one time. He'd find a way to be absent from their actual mating ritual, if it killed him.

"You aren't a bunch of shape-shifters," Kara muttered from behind the barrier of her stiff back. "You're a bunch of perverts."

Lyon had had enough. He went to her, took her by the shoulders, and forced her to face him. "You. Are. Not. Human. The sooner you stop thinking like one, the better for all of us, Kara. Yourself included."

The temper in her eyes drained away.

He softened his grip on her shoulders. "It sounds strange to you, I know, but it won't be. You'll be so caught up in the power, you won't think about being self-conscious. I promise."

The look in her eyes turned almost bleak. "I don't want it to be Vhyper."

His hands spasmed. His beast howled with a bleakness to match her own. What had he done? What grief had he pulled down on all their heads by giving in to his need for her when he'd prepped her for the Pairing? If she were his mate instead of Vhyper's, he was certain he'd be able to lead her through the ritual with relative ease because she trusted him. With the right encouragement, he could make her want him even under circumstances that might be embarrassing for her.