Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(79)

Goddess, I'm out of my mind for following her in here.

"Ariana!" His voice barely carried in the wind's tunnel-like roar. Ahead, he could see nothing but more twisting curves. But Ariana was up there. She had to be.

Kougar began to swim, propelling himself forward with hard sweeps of his arms, praying he wasn't simply accelerating his own rendezvous with death. Though what difference did it make? Unless he could reach Ariana, none at all.

Over and over, he swam forward, his pulse pounding with adrenaline, his mind narrowed, focused on only one thing. Finally, as he turned a corner, the dark light flashed, and he saw her. She was still spinning slowly, bonelessly, her dark hair floating out around her.

Unconscious.

"Ariana!" Kougar gave a hard pull with his arms, gliding forward. Hookeye's sightless eyes stared at him as he drew close, her feet and their burden trailing her as she floated headfirst toward the trap.

Another push forward, and he was able to grab hold of her leg. With a massive sigh of relief, he pulled her into his arms, but he was moving too fast, the force of his momentum propelling them forward. Too fast. Kicking hard the other way, Kougar tried to slow them down. He might not be able to see the spirit trap yet, but he knew it was there, waiting to send them to their deaths.

When he'd done all he could to slow their forward motion, Kougar pulled Ariana against his heart, stroking her ice-cold face, his chest seizing with his need to save her.

"Wake up, Ariana. Wake up, my love." When she didn't stir, he lifted her face to his and kissed her, sliding his tongue along the crease of her unresponsive lips. Sweet, sweet lips that no longer possessed even the slightest tang of darkness. She was finally free of the poison that had consumed her life for so long. It almost killed him that she might never have the chance to enjoy that freedom.

The light flashed again, revealing a throbbing, malevolent darkness no more than a dozen yards away.

The spirit trap.

His heart stopped, then thundered like a herd of horses. At the rate they were traveling, they had mere minutes before they reached it. Before it was over.

"Goddess, Ariana."

He felt a light pulsing in the mating bond, the soft glow of connection. Inside, his cat began to growl and hiss, urging him to do . . . something. A picture flashed in his mind, the cougar at the end of the mating bond, scratching at it as if trying to get in. As if he wanted him to open it.

What the hell? The mating bond was already open, like an untwisted straw. That was the reason the poison had been able to reach him.

Except that wasn't what his cat was asking of him, he realized. If the bond was a small, mystical tube running between them, heart to heart, at either end was a cap. Or perhaps a fine mesh filter. A small separation allowing each of them a measure of privacy. It was that that the damned animal wanted him to do away with. He wanted him to open it completely.

Hell no. The mating bond was open enough. He already felt Ariana's strongest emotions bursting through from time to time. A man needed some measure of solitude.

His cat growled.

Inside, he began to quake as he remembered Ariana's accusation, that he'd never opened himself to her.

Yes, but she hadn't been talking about the mating bond.

Of course she'd been talking about the mating bond. About opening himself completely, mind, body, heart, and soul. Holding nothing back. Nothing.

The thought of it made his hackles rise. He didn't share himself like that with anyone.

And what if I do? What if let her in, fully?

He waited for that sick feeling to punch him in the gut, but felt only a warm wash of love and rightness at the thought of pulling her inside him, tucking her into his heart, and never letting her go.

It was what he wanted.

Goddess, that's what I have to do. I have to open that bond. Then, maybe I can reach her.

But how?

The answer, he knew, lay inside. In his heart and the mating bond.

He pulled her tight against him as they spun through the wormhole, cradling her head on his shoulder and thought about how much he loved her, how much he'd always loved her. How much he needed her.

But nothing happened.

Fuck. How was he supposed to open the thing?

Dark lights flashed around him, illuminating the pulsing blackness of the trap.

They were nearly there.

His pulse thudded in his ears.

He had to find a way to open his heart! He imagined ripping the end off the bond, much as his cat had, clawing at it to reach Ariana. Inside, he felt the bond throbbing, felt his heart cracking. Just a little. Not enough!

I'm a warrior, dammit!

Give him a blade or fangs, and he could battle anything, but this was beyond him.

Goddess.

If only Ariana could help him. She'd know what to do, he felt certain. Ariana. Desperation to save her pounded in his mind.

Love for her surged inside him, thicker, blinding, swelling until it threatened to break his ribs. For a moment, he thought it had, as he felt the walls of his chest crack. No, not his chest.

His heart burst open, the mating bond wrenching wide, flooding his mind and body with warmth, and with a light he thought might be bright enough to make him glow.

Love flowed into him with the nectar-sweetness of Ilina song. Ariana's love.

The mating bond glistened and sparkled like a crystal rainbow, casting away all the dark shadows inside him. He drank of her love, letting it seep into his cells and his bones, blending with the overwhelming love he felt for her, then he poured it back into the bond, into her.