Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(6)

With a low growl in his throat, he fought for control.

He'd come for one thing and one thing only. To save his friends. But standing within reach of the woman he'd thought dead for a millennium, he found himself wanting more. And needing answers.

"Why, you soulless bitch?" The question came out as a snarl. "Why sever the mating bond? Why make the world think you were gone? Why make me think you were gone?"

A shadow passed over her face, her mouth tightening as if in pain though he knew that to be a lie. The soulless felt no pain but the physical.

She swallowed visibly, her expression hardening to granite. "I severed the bond because I could. Once I embraced the dark spirit, I had no need of you, Feral. No desire to touch you or be touched by you again. And I still don't. The Ariana you knew no longer exists. And I have no interest in you."

Even though her words didn't surprise him, her cold dismissal turned like a blade in his gut, igniting his fury.

His hands fisted until the blood began to throb in his palms. "Why did Melisande reconnect the mating bond?"

She looked away. "A perverse bit of mischief. Go away, Kougar. There's nothing for you here."

As her gaze returned to his, brown contacts blocking any glimpse into her thoughts, he struggled to hold on to his thinning control. And felt it slipping through his fingers--fingers about to erupt in claws.

Ariana flushed hot, then cold, as she stared at Kougar, at her mate, at the man she'd loved for a thousand years.

She'd forgotten how tall he was, how broad his shoulders, how muscular his arms, as he stood before her now in a white-collared shirt and black pants, clothes torn and bloodied as if he'd been fighting. She'd forgotten how his presence filled a room, how it filled the entire castle, until she could hardly breathe through the need to be in his arms, to feel his body sliding against hers, sliding into hers.

He couldn't know.

Never had she struggled so hard to control her emotions, to hide what was in her heart and head. Never had doing so caused her so much pain as it did now as Kougar stared at her with eyes as pale as ice, filled not with tenderness but with pain and a growing fury. Not with love but hatred. A hatred she must fan.

Her stomach clenched and churned. What she was doing was cruel beyond measure. But she had no choice. Her cruelty just might keep Kougar alive.

Soulless, soulless, soulless.

The chant pounded in her head as she focused on keeping her expression closed and hard even as emotions clawed at her in a wild battle--longing and fear. A storm of devastating love and aching grief that had lived within her for an eternity.

Inside, her heart trembled, on the verge of an emotional meltdown. She narrowed her eyes, dropping her lids to mere slits, trying to hide the sheen of disastrous tears even as she fought back the emotion, fought for control.

Goddess, she loved him. She'd never stopped loving him even when she'd hated herself for it, for the destruction that love had wrought. So many dead. So much grief.

But the danger wasn't past for the Ilinas.

And thanks to Mel, Kougar was in danger again, too. Damn, Melisande! She never should have reconnected the mating bond without Ariana's knowledge. Without her consent!

Mel knew Ariana wouldn't approve, which was why she'd gone behind her back. Melisande might not care if Kougar, or any Feral, lived or died. But Ariana did. Too much. And he would die if that poison started flowing again. The only thing saving him was the miserable, mangled state of their mating bond.

And she must keep it that way.

Kougar took a threatening step toward her. Within the flaying hatred in his eyes she saw flashes of a pain that nearly drove her to her knees.

"Why are you here, Kougar? Why now if you've known I was alive for over twenty years?"

"You're going to free two of my friends from a Daemon spirit trap."

Oh, sweet goddess. She couldn't help him.

Struggling for control, she yanked the icy mask tighter over her features. "No. I'm not. I don't give a damn about your Ferals." Which was partly true. Most of his men had been as opposed to their mating as her maidens had been. Only Horse and the Wind had ever been friendly to her. But whoever the two were who were lost, they were Kougar's men. If she could, she would certainly save them. For him.

But she couldn't help him. And she couldn't keep up this pretense much longer! She had to get him to leave.

Lifting her chin, she gave him her haughtiest, coldest look. "Go, Kougar, and don't come back. You're not welcome here."

In a flash, his anger ignited. She'd pushed him too far.

A chill of fear skipped down her spine as his eyes turned the pale gold of a cougar's, as fangs dropped from his mouth. One moment he was standing still, the next he lunged, grabbing her around the throat with a wickedly clawed hand. Fiery pain exploded as his claws pierced the sides of her neck, as warm blood ran down into her scrubs. As he slammed her back against the wall.

Too late, she fought him, her instincts off, her gut-deep belief he'd never really hurt her causing her to move too slowly when it suddenly became obvious he would.

"You bitch." The words were a growl in his throat, his furious face mere inches from her own as his hot breath wafted over her chilling flesh.

She began to tremble from a combination of shock and the knowledge that without her unique Ilina weapons, she was virtually helpless against his far superior strength. If he chose to rip out her throat, she couldn't stop him.