Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(80)

"Falkyn. Cease!"

But the desperate need to escape overrode every thought, every instinct until her mind was pounding, screeching. Blank.

"Faith!" Hawke tried to reach her through the terror that had engulfed her. Or the fury. He was all too afraid it was the dark magic driving her frantic attempt at freedom.

The small peregrine falcon broke free of the hands trying to grasp her and lifted into flight, whapping Vhyper in the face with her wing as she rose, only to slam into the mystic barrier Kougar had erected around the goddess stone. The barrier knocked her back, but she remained airborne and dove for the other side only to fall back a second time, harder, plummeting to the rock.

Hawke reached for her, his heart in his throat. Goddess, she had to be all right.

Her wings began to flutter, and he grabbed her, carefully pinning her wings to her body. "Shift back, Faith. Shift back."

Instead, she struggled, shrieking her anger, and tried to bite him. Inside, his hawk screeched in answer. But her nearness in this form did nothing to calm his bird. He felt the hawk's fury rising with Faith's agitation. The red haze began rushing into his vision.

Pushing to his feet, he shoved the falcon at Tighe. "Take her! Before I hurt her."

Tighe had barely grabbed the small, struggling bird of prey when Hawke went feral, his claws and fangs erupting. Wulfe and Paenther grabbed him by the upper arms, their touch helping him struggle for control and not join Faith in a wild flight into the dome above.

"Shift, Falkyn," Lyon demanded. "We'll not release you until you do. You'll never be free until you shift back into human form."

Sparkling lights flickered. Faith reappeared practically in Tighe's arms, once more in her jeans and sports bra. So she was one of the ones who could retain her clothes when she shifted. As the tiger shifter pulled back, Kougar and Lyon grabbed Faith's arms and slapped the waiting Mage cuffs around her wrists, black metal bands that would keep her from shifting but wouldn't hamper her movements since they weren't attached to one another. Still, she wouldn't be able to remove them without the counterspell.

High around one upper arm curled a delicate gold Feral armband with the head of a falcon. In many ways, a feminine version of Hawke's own.

She growled low in her throat, easily jerking free of Kougar's and Lyon's holds. Their shocked expressions might have been comical under other circumstances. She was strong all of a sudden, and she fought them, swinging a fist that nearly caught Kougar in the eye. Lyon grabbed her from behind, not underestimating her strength a second time.

Paenther squeezed Hawke's shoulder. "They're not hurting her."

"I know that." But he was shaking with the instinctive need to protect her, the growls coming low and fast.

Bastards.

Hawke heard the word in his head clear as day. Faith's voice. And he could tell by the looks on the others' faces, the startled exchanged glances, that he wasn't the only one.

"Did she really just talk to us telepathically?" Paenther asked. "In human form?"

"Shit," Jag muttered.

"A handy trick in battle," Tighe said. "Once we get her back on our side."

Lyon looked to Kougar. "Let's get this shield down and get her back to that cave in the Sahara. Get her cured."

"Agreed."

The sight of Faith fighting off another man was sending him into a tailspin. "She's mine." The words tore between his fangs, barely human.

Paenther stepped in front of him, blocking his view of Lyon holding a struggling Faith. "You must get control, Wings." Paenther's hands gripped Hawke's shoulders hard, but his voice remained even. "Ease down, my friend. Lyon's not hurting her, you know that. We're going to take her to the cave and save her. But she's going to need you with her. You must get control."

Mine! Even as the wildness inside him struggled to break free, to claim the woman he adored, Hawke fought to push back the red haze, to hold on.

"Ease down, Hawke. Come on, my friend." Paenther's calm voice helped pull him back, little by little, until finally he was able to retract his claws and fangs.

Hawke released a hard breath as Paenther let go of him. "Thank you."

Paenther nodded and stepped back, letting Hawke pass.

Hawke strode straight to Lyon. "I've got her."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Neither am I. But watching you struggle with her is going to make me lose it. It has to be me."

Lyon hesitated, then shoved the struggling woman into Hawke's arms, and she fought him as hard as she had Lyon, her strength easily three times what it had been before. Not equal to his, but not that much less. She'd be able to take most Therian males like this. Most Mage.

She arched into him, trying to twist her body out of his grasp, low growls and hisses coming from her throat. When she glared up at him, her eyes were flat. The eyes of a stranger. Something inside him roared with pain.

"Let me go." A deadly fury laced her words.

"Do you know me?" he demanded, holding her fast.

Her lip curled, then softened as recognition flared in the brown depths of her eyes. For an instant, his Faith was back, then gone again just as quickly. "Yes, I know you. You have to let me go."

"Why? Where will you go?"