Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(47)

"Lyon…"

He silenced her with a wave of his hand. "I'll tell you later." He turned his back on the confusion in her eyes and started for the walk. "Let's go, Kara." What he'd told her earlier held true. He wasn't letting her out of his sight again. But he'd been a fool to allow himself to be alone with her. His control was shot. Another Feral might help him keep the wildness at bay.

Or protect Kara if he failed. Damn, but he needed to get away from her altogether.

As they walked to the car, he pressed his fist against the ache in his chest. She made him want things. Things he'd known little of and never cared about before. Smiles. Laughter.

But the goddess had known what she was doing when she gave Kara to Vhyper. Vhyper, once he was himself again, would make her laugh. He'd make her smile. He'd make her happy in a way Lyon never could.

The sooner he remembered that, accepted it, and quit wishing for things that could never be, the better. Because if he didn't, this obsession he was developing for Kara was going to make his life a living hell.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

The drive back to Feral House was short and silent: Kara could feel the fear rising inside her as if someone had opened her up and was pouring it in. With each rotation of tires, her pulse increased. Her mouth went dry. Her stomach clenched with misery both real and forced as she held on to the hope that Lyon would figure out what was doing this to her.

Before she found out in the dark one night. Alone.

Tears burned her eyes at the horrible return of fear and the loss of the brief hours of pleasure she'd known on the rock. The freedom. Lyon's company. His smile.

He sat beside her, silent and brooding, as he drove them back to the place she least wanted to go. If only they could have stayed out there in the wind, beneath the open sky, with the sound of the rushing water filling her ears instead of the thudding of her heart.

If only she could have stayed out there with Lyon.

But after that last incident, he'd been hell-bent on getting away from her. Her cheeks heated as she remembered the way she'd touched him after he'd told her no. He hadn't stopped her, but neither had he encouraged her to continue. Yet she had. Until he turned her and pressed her against the wall.

He'd been close to losing control. She'd felt it, felt the hardness of the erection he'd ground against her backside.

God, she'd wanted him. As he'd pressed against her, she'd longed for whatever he'd wanted to give her. With the rush of power had come an incredible joy, the combination turning into a raging need. For Lyon.

A need he'd shared. He'd given her no doubt about that. But he'd refused to give in to it.

Because she belonged to somebody else.

As they drove into the drive, Lyon could feel Kara's fear rising exactly as it had earlier. He frowned. What if she was right? What if this wasn't natural?

"Kara, we're going to do a little experiment."

She looked at him dubiously. "What kind of experiment?"

"Close your eyes. Tightly."

She glanced at him for a moment longer before he watched her golden lashes sweep down over her eyes.

"Now what?"

"Nothing. Just keep them closed for me while I drive around for a few minutes."

He felt her relax against the seat, but her fear didn't ebb. Until he drove out of the driveway. But that didn't necessarily prove anything.

Lyon drove to the end of the street, then turned around and drove into a drive two houses down from Feral House with a drive he knew to be of similar length to their own. As he curved around in front of the house, her emotions remained level and unaffected. Then suddenly began to spike, but with worry, not fear.

"Are your eyes closed?" he demanded.

"Yes."

"What are you worried about?"

"We're in front of Feral House, aren't we? Yet when I can't see it, I'm not afraid."

"Keep your eyes closed. We'll try it again."

This time when he drove to the end of the street and back again, he drove into his own drive. And her fear quickly began to rise.

"You can open your eyes, Kara." He flipped open his cell phone and called Paenther. "Meet me in my office in five."

"What's the matter?" Kara blinked at him.

"The second time, I didn't pull in here. I pulled into a neighbor's drive. That's the time you didn't react."

"You believe me," she breathed.

Her relief was so acute, he reached for her and squeezed her shoulder. "We've probably got a dark charm in the house. It happens from time to time."

"What's a dark charm?"

"A Mage spell attached to some item that finds its way into our house. It'll cause us problems for a couple of days before we find it and destroy it, or until the magic peters out. This one's strong, though, to be causing you this much anxiety when you're not even wearing it. But it makes sense why the fear disappears when you're away from the house."

"Could the dark charm have caused Wulfe's problem?"

"Good question, but no. Unascended as you are, your natural defenses against magic are virtually nonexistent. Not so ours. No dark charm has the power to rip a Feral loose from his humanity. The Mage simply don't have that kind of power anymore."