Passion Untamed (Feral Warriors #3)(62)

We'll get your magic unbound. I refuse to watch you go through another cutting like that. Once you've done what you can to heal me, I'm leaving for the mountains. I'm not leaving Vhyper there any longer than I have to. He never deserted me, and I won't desert him.

"What do you mean? When didn't he desert you?"

The cat shifted its head, resting his chin on her thigh. As his emerald eyes looked up at her, he told her about Vhyper and Frederick. About how badly Vhyper took Frederick's death at Ancreta's hand.

That night, Vhyper shifted into his snake. He shouldn't have been able to without the radiance and Feral magic, but the vipers have always been different.

"They have poison, don't they?"

They do. In the old days, before the rise of the Daemons and the subsequent war that ended most Therian and Mage magic, the vipers were the bad boys of the Therian world. They were the outcasts. The villains. Now there is only ever one with the ability to shift, and he's a Feral Warrior. Vhyper is one of the finest I've ever known. The real Vhyper, anyway.

When he shifted that night in Ancreta's dungeon, he shrank his size until he was barely bigger than a worm and escaped unseen. After months of captivity and torture, he was out of there. Free. But instead of taking off to find Feral House as he should have done, he mounted a one-man rescue. Of me. He should have gone to find the Ferals and come back with the might of the shape-shifters behind him, but he didn't know where Feral House was and didn't know how long it would take. Travel was slow in those days, especially in winter, which it was. He was afraid they'd move me, and he'd lose me.

Vhyper risked his freedom, his life, to get me out of there. And succeeded. Now he's the one trapped. I can't leave him in there. I have to save him as he saved me.

Skye stroked his fur. "I'm going to help you, Paenther. I'm going to heal you, I swear it. Then I'll do whatever I can to help you free him."

The panther rose onto his haunches and leaned forward to lick her cheek. Thank you, Beauty, but I'm not letting you get anywhere near that cavern again. My men and I will get him out.

"I don't think you'll make it through the warding of that mountain without me to guide you."

We'll see. I've promised to keep you safe, little witch. That's a promise I mean to keep.

"I know." She buried her face in his fur and loved him.

Help me shift.

"You'll be naked."

He chuckled in her head. A naked man on the beach will draw a lot less attention than a black panther. There's no one out here to see, either way. I need to kiss you, Beauty. It won't wait.

His words brought tears to her eyes. She did as he asked, and a moment later, the man was beside her, pulling her onto his lap and into his arms.

Paenther pulled Skye tight against him as he sat naked in the sand. The night was clear, the moon dancing over the waves as the soft roar of surf melded with the hard beating of his heart. Need poured through him as he slanted his mouth over that of the woman in his lap, kissing her thoroughly, tasting her, inhaling her sweet scent of violets. The need to touch her, to be close to her, was becoming a craving he couldn't fight. Goddess, what was she doing to him? The more time he spent with her, the more he needed her. And not just sexually. Touching her was becoming as important to him as breathing.

As she wrapped her arms around his neck, he reached beneath her sweater and covered her breast, neatly tucked into a lacy bra. He growled, low, not liking the feel of anything between them.

With a light tug, he pulled off her sweater and tossed it aside, then followed with her bra. Her skin glowed in the moonlight like mother-of-pearl, drawing his gaze...and his mouth. He bent his head and closed his lips over her shoulder. She tasted of forests and raindrops and sweetness, and she stirred emotions inside him he'd never felt for anyone.

Her fingers went through his hair. "Aren't you worried about draden?" she asked softly.

"I'll shift if I have to," he murmured, then slid his tongue along the line of her shoulder and slowly up her neck, drawing a gasp and a hard shiver from her. Skye was in no danger from the little fiends - they rarely attacked Mage. And he had a fiery need to make love to this woman beneath the stars.

His hand closed over one perfect breast, her nipple tight and hard as it grazed his palm, sending need coiling low inside him. Curving one hand beneath her knees and the other at her back, he turned her until he was cradling her in his arms.

Skye laughed and slid one arm behind his neck. "What are you doing?"

He met her gaze with his hunger, he was certain, written all over his face. "This." Lifting her, he brought her breast straight to his mouth. He groaned from the sheer sweetness of her flesh as he closed his lips around her and suckled. He flicked his tongue across her nipple, over and over again until her fingers dug into his neck where she held on, and into his scalp, where she held him tight against her until she was moaning with pleasure.

With a last tug on her breast, he lowered her back to his lap, gazing at the damp, swollen flesh with satisfaction. He looked down at her, at her small, sexy smile.

"You're even more beautiful in the moonlight," he said softly. "I didn't think it was possible."

Her smile widened and turned shy. "So are you, my warrior. I want you inside me."

"There's nowhere I'd rather be." He kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth as he laid her on the soft sand and stroked her body, his hand sliding down her torso, to bump up against her jeans. "These have got to go."