Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(74)

“I was marked by the goddess to be the next Feral Warrior.”

Her eyes widened. “Literally?”

“Yes and no. By the goddess, I mean Nature. There’s not a real woman or anything. But the marking is literal.” He touched the four claw marks that scored his right nipple. “I woke up to these after a hell of a dream I can’t remember. I kind of knew what they meant. I’d heard of the Feral Warriors and how they were marked, but I’d never seen one. That night, as we got ready for bed, I wanted to make love to my wife.”

Delaney’s breath sucked in audibly. “Your eyes changed.”

Tighe nodded, the old pain driving a stake through his heart. “She screamed.” He looked across the shower, his sight caught far in the past. “I thought she saw something behind me, something threatening my family. That emotional rush turned me completely feral. Not crazy, like you’ve seen me, but still feral. I was horrified as claws unsheathed from my fingers, and fangs grew in my mouth. She ran from me. She ran from our cottage screaming for help, yelling that there was a demon in her home. The villagers attacked me, hacking at me with knives and axes. If I’d been human, I’d have died. I managed to get back in my skin—back in my human form—and tried to explain, but they weren’t listening. I had no choice but to run that night.

“The next morning, I snuck back into the village. I had to talk to Gretchen. I knew she loved me. If I could just explain, everything would be okay. But the moment she saw me, her eyes filled with such terror. Such terror, D.”

Delaney looked up at him, and he met her gaze as she reached for his hand. “That’s why my terror sets you off, isn’t it? It’s that memory.”

“Probably. I was furious with her, but mostly…I hurt, D. She’d betrayed me. Betrayed everything we’d meant to one another. She started screaming again and ran from me, and I let her go. I understood it was never going to be okay. But as I left my house, my home, and started back through the garden, I heard Amalie. I turned around to find her running toward me. Toward me. She was crying for me. Gretchen’s uncle snatched her up as the other villagers armed themselves, ready to drive me away a second time. All the while Amalie kicked and screamed, reaching for me, the tears streaming down her face.” He covered his eyes against the burning that wouldn’t stop. “I turned and walked away. I turned my back on her, D. I never saw her again.”

“Tighe.” He felt Delaney’s strong arms go around his waist and her damp head press against his chest. “There was nothing else you could have done. Nothing. She knew you loved her,” she added softly.

His arms went around her and held fast. “Did she? I never went back. A newly marked Feral starts to feel a pull, a need for radiance that will eventually lead him to Feral House, but it took me nearly a year and a half to find it, up in the Highlands of Scotland. Not long after I arrived, Lyon moved us to Ireland because of all the problems with the Mage. I immersed myself in my new life, shutting out the pain of the old. We were engaged in constant battle with the Mage, and after a time, we moved to Spain, and finally across the ocean to come here.

“The first time I considered trying to go back, we were discussing leaving for the New World. I needed to see Amalie again. Just one more time. It seems ridiculous, maybe, but I still thought of her as five. In my mind, she’d stayed five all those years. When you never age, when no one around you ever ages, you tend to forget that others do. And it’s all too easy to lose track of time. I finally stopped and did the math and realized nearly a hundred and twenty years had passed. My little Amalie was long gone. I don’t know if she lived another year after I left her, or another hundred. When I pulled that child from the fire, all I could think, all I could wonder was how many times my own daughter had needed me that I wasn’t there to protect her.”

“I’m sorry, Tighe.” Delaney held him, stroking his back, until the shudders left him, and the memories uncurled from his heart.

“It was a long time ago,” he said, finally feeling like he could breathe again.

Delaney straightened and met his gaze. “I’m sorry for you, but I’m sorry for them, too. Poor Gretchen. She’d probably never heard of Therians, let alone Feral Warriors. All she knew was stories of demons and devils and bad things. Your changing like that would have scared the crap out of anyone.”

She ran gentle fingers through his hair, holding him with her gaze. “Don’t blame her, Tighe. It wasn’t her fault.” Leaning forward, she laid a feather-light kiss upon the corner of his mouth. “But it wasn’t your fault either.”

He sighed. “I tried to forget. I had to forget. But not a day goes by that my traitorous eyes don’t remind me what I am.”

A soft hand stroked his cheek. “I love what you are.”

“I saw your eyes, D. When I went feral.”

“Well, yeah. Under the circumstances, I had reason to be afraid. But, for heaven’s sake, Tighe, it’s your own fault you scare us humans. You guys are so damned secretive, no one knows you even exist. So of course we’re shocked when you suddenly do something no human can do. But now that I know, I’m not afraid. Unless you go feral again. Then all bets are off.”

He marveled at her courage. Even then, even when he’d been lost in that chaos, she’d pulled him out. She’d faced the worst he had to give and not run.