Passion Untamed (Feral Warriors #3)(84)

"Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on, Beauty."

Paenther lifted Skye's dress to her waist, then gripped the backs of her thighs, spreading her wide for him as he lifted her. He probed between her legs with his shaft, seeking her entrance. Finding it, he pulled her hips toward him and thrust inside her tight, wet sheath on a stab of ecstasy.

Skye threw her head back with a moan of pure pleasure.

"Oh, Paenther."

His name on her lips destroyed his control. He pulled nearly all the way out of her before pressing home a second time and a third, over and over, each thrust more desperate than the last.

So intense was the pleasure he nearly forgot the reason for it. "Say the words, Beauty. I'll help you say the right ones." Together they called her power.

His voice broke off, midchant. "I'm getting close. Goddess, you send me up faster than..." He kissed her hard and pulled back on a groan. "The power of the beasts!" he called. "Now!"

Skye gripped his head from behind, and he knew she fought to reverse the damage Ancreta had done to him all those years ago.

The men circled tight around them even as Paenther continued to thrust inside her.

The scent of fresh blood mixed with the heady scent of sex teased his nostrils. He didn't have to look to know they were cutting themselves.

"Lean back, Skye," Lyon's voice said. "I need to cut his chest."

She curved her back, giving Lyon minimal room to get a knife between them. Paenther shifted her, holding her rear with one arm as he slid his hand against his bloody chest, then shoved his fist in the air.

"Empower the spirit of the panther!"

Like before, thunder rumbled. Power roared up through the Earth. The rush of pleasure and pain sent them both over the edge in the next thrust of his body inside her, sending them tumbling in a single spiral of ecstasy. As the orgasm tore through his body, he felt the power erupt within him ten times stronger than before. Paenther shouted, half pleasure, half pain. Skye screamed.

Around them, the other Ferals shouted, but he heard no pain in the sound. Pleasure, yes. And triumph.

"Holy shit!"

"Did you feel that?"

The Ferals' excited voices bombarded his ears.

Skye continued to whisper the words Ezekiel had taught her, alone this time. Now that her cantric had been disabled, she no longer needed his help. As she murmured the words, the pressure mounted in his head until he thought it would explode.

"Paenther, reach for him!" Skye cried. "He's trying to get to you. Reach for him!"

Paenther closed his eyes, desperate to help, yet uncertain where to reach, where to turn. And suddenly he felt it, the second presence struggling toward him through a thick, bright barrier. With his Feral's strength and determination, he pushed against that invisible wall with every ounce of mental power he possessed.

It shattered. In a burst of light that rained down over him like broken glass, the barrier burst. And standing within a rainbow mist was a sleek and beautiful black panther. A creature, a spirit, he'd never seen, yet knew in the deepest reaches of his being.

The panther roared, a jubilant sound of triumph and rapture. Then he leaped, and suddenly they were one, their minds brushing, intertwining, snapping together like two pieces of a puzzle. And as one, they swung their gazes to Skye, who was still in his arms, still cradling him deep within her body. The woman they both loved.

For one sharp moment Paenther felt a pinch of jealousy that the beast inside him loved her as thoroughly as he did. Then he laughed at himself. Laughed out loud. And felt the beast's pleasure caress his mind.

Within him, a sudden pressure built, a desperate need to shift. He pulled out of Skye and set her down. With a swift kiss, he stepped back.

For the first time, he didn't have to pull on the power. All he had to do was think of himself as an animal, and in a sparkling flash of light, he became one. The shift was amazingly, incredibly, without pain. Instead, he felt a rush of such pleasure he could barely credit it. The pleasure raced through his body, extinguishing the pain, flushing the rage he'd lived with for three hundred years.

He stood on the rock, the cold damp wind blowing in his cat's face. His vision was clearer, his senses keener, his body stronger, more vibrant, more alive as he drank in the feel of the spirit bounding through his mind. One. After all these years, one, at last.

His gaze swung to Skye. One with his beast, perhaps, but not whole. Not completely. Not yet.

Thinking of his man form, he shifted, smooth as glass.

Belatedly, he realized the wind had stopped, the sky had cleared, and in the east, the sun was starting to rise. He reached for the beauty who owned his heart...and stopped midreach as he stared at the sleeve on his arm.

"How is this possible? I lose my clothes when I shift. I always have."

"Your gifts come through the power of your animal. You've been lacking a lot of that power." Skye's smile was the sweetest in the world. "Now that he's with you, you'll both be stronger."

He gathered her hard against him, then swung her around, laughing. Finally he set her down and turned to his men, who were all watching him, bemused.

"I don't think I've ever heard you laugh," Tighe said, a quiet grin on his face and wonder in his eyes.

"I feel...reborn," Paenther said.

His brothers gathered around him, slapping him on the back, and pulling him into hard, male hugs. His only disappointment was that Vhyper wasn't there to share it with him. But he was up at the house, free of the evil. Trust might take a while, but it would come. He had to believe that.