Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(66)

"How many female shifters have you known?" Fox asked.

"Shifters? Hundreds. In my youth, all Therians shifted. But there have been few female Ferals. Six, not including Pink. Faith is the seventh."

Seven in five thousand years.

Female Ferals were rare. But she was no rarity. And the uncomfortable silence at the table said they all knew it. This female Feral Warrior was a mistake.

Chapter Fourteen

Hawke followed Lyon into the hallway, then stopped where he could still see Faith. He'd gone as far as he intended to go.

Lyon glanced back at him, a flicker of frustration on his face before he gave in and backtracked to him. "She has to be locked up in the prison with the others. All new Ferals do."

"The infection is dormant in her. We won't bring her into her animal."

"She's heard the discussions, Hawke. She knows we may have to clear the way for new Ferals to be marked, for the right Ferals to be marked. She'll run."

"No, she won't. She won't try to escape this."

Lyon clasped him on the shoulder, genuine sympathy in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know you care for her."

"I love her, Roar. But more than that, I know her. She would never endanger others to save herself. Sacrifice is her life."

"You can't know that."

"She's spent nearly a century on the streets helping human runaways. Yeah. I can."

Lyon's jaw clenched and unclenched in rhythmic bursts. The Chief of the Ferals never made rash decisions. Ever. Which was one of the reasons that, to a man, they'd lay down their lives for him.

"Kara thinks Faith is your mate."

Hawke nodded. "I would ask her to be if things were different. If I were whole . . ."

Lyon sighed. "Why can't any of you fall for normal Therian women?"

Hawke smiled. "Like you did?" Kara, the Radiant who'd been raised human and hadn't even known that immortals existed, had hardly been that.

"Touche."

Pain tore through Hawke's head, one of the lightning bolts he was becoming all too used to, closely followed by his hawk's vicious retaliation. When it was over, when he was able to breathe again, he found Lyon watching him with quiet worry in his eyes.

"You're not getting better." Lyon's statement held no lilt of question.

"No. Not yet. I'm not convinced my hawk isn't infected. He's been fighting me since we got out of that spirit trap."

"But you're holding it together."

"Yes. With Faith's help."

Lyon rubbed his hand over his mouth and sighed. "I don't want her out of your sight."

Hawke nodded, relieved and grateful. "My feelings exactly."

Lyon's hand on his shoulder tightened. "I hope this works out, Wings, I really do."

"Me, too." He'd calculate the odds on that happening, but the answer would be far too depressing.

Faith's head swiveled toward the doorway, her gaze snapping to Hawke's face as he and Lyon returned to the dining room. The small, calm smile of reassurance he gave her had the worst of the awful tension leaching from her body.

"My orders are to not let you out of my sight," he said quietly as he took his seat beside her again.

"No prison?"

"No prison."

A sigh escaped her lips as she looked at Lyon. "Thank you."

Lyon nodded, his expression reserved, but not unkind. "We believe the infection in you is dormant, Faith, but if we find it's not . . ."

"If it's not, you'll do what you must to stop me." She glanced down at her plate. "I know. I agree."

Hawke nudged her with his elbow. "Eat. After lunch, we're going to start your training."

She looked at him in disbelief. "What training?"

"Knives, weight lifting."

Her eyes widened, an expression mirrored by several other faces around the table. "Hawke . . ."

But he cut her off. "At the very least, you have to learn to defend yourself against another draden attack. Strength isn't built overnight. Neither are fighting skills. They take time and a lot of practice."

He was acting as if she'd been marked on purpose. As if she had a future as a Feral Warrior when they all knew that wasn't true.

He gripped her chin and gently forced her to look at him, to meet his steely gaze. "We don't know for certain that your being marked was an accident." His gaze lifted, and he met his brothers' eyes around the table. "It's time we all considered that. But we need you trained, and we're going to start today." His voice brooked no argument.

It wasn't that she was against learning how to fight draden or doing a little weight lifting, but . . . "There's evil inside me," she whispered, as if everyone in the room couldn't hear her. The knowledge cut like a blade.

Hawke's eyes softened even as his expression remained implacable. "There's an infection inside of you. And we're going to find a cure for it. You're not evil." He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the mouth. In front of everyone. As if he wanted them to see.

"You make it sound so simple," she grumbled.

He smiled at her, a smile of pure male confidence. "It is."