Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(13)

Monica came into the room just as Khan finished speaking. Her cat looked ready to do battle because Sebastian had threatened her mate. Sebastian put up his hands and waited for her to move around him. Her body was tense and ready for him to make a move so she could leap at his throat. He looked up in time to see Ama move toward the door.

“If you leave here, I’m going to chase you. And there’s no way you’re leaving here with my brother, any of them. Sit.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew that he’d f*cked up. But the blood running through his veins was hot with both the need to take her as his mate and to hurt anyone who tried to keep him from her.

Suddenly he found himself across the room and held hard against the cabinets. No one was touching him, but he knew it was Ama who held him there. She stepped nearer to him but never let him down. Sebastian stared at her as her body took on a change that took his breath away.

Her eyes now glowed to a bright green, and her hair, white as the brightest light, was flying about her shoulders like she was in a storm. He was pretty sure they were. The tat around her eyes started to morph and change, too. Before it was just above her brows. Now it grew to cover her cheeks and forehead, which were glowing brightly as well.

“You do not talk to me that way.” He nodded as she pointed her finger at his chest. “I’m a person not a…not a….”

“Dog? No, you’re not. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not a dog.” Sebastian opened his mouth to take more of her scent in. “Christ, you’re beautiful and smell delicious. Let me down now, please, Amarizi. I want to take you right now. I need to mark you right f*cking now.”

He noticed that his family had left the room. Amarizi started to pace, and he asked her again to let him down. She didn’t even look in his direction, and he stayed right where she held him.

“That man said you’d be difficult. He told me that someday a man would come to me and claim me. He said that once he did, all my….” She turned to look at him, anger burning in her eyes. “You’re not going to do anything to me. I refuse to be any man’s mate. I don’t like what I am now, and I won’t have any more of this…this thing unleashed. You’ll stay away from me.”

“I don’t think you understand. I won’t be able to now. I’ve found you and…. Do you think we could have this conversation without me dangling three feet off the ground? It’s a little disconcerting to think you can do this to me.”

He felt himself being lowered and when he reached for her, she slammed him hard against the cabinets again. This time only his head hit, and he stayed on the floor. He’d be glad when she couldn’t hurt him. His head was beginning to ache pretty badly right now.

“I said you’re not to touch me.” He nodded and sat slowly in the chair. He also left his hands flat on the table, not giving her any excuse to toss him around again. When she started to pace again, he noticed that her hands were tight in her pockets. He wondered what she was hiding there.

“I would very much like to know what you are. I know that you can’t be human because of the marks on your face. Those aren’t tats like I first thought, but a part of you.” She nodded. “You’re powerful, and I would imagine that you’re even now trying to hold a great deal of that in you. Are you hurting?”

“You have no idea how much I want to be naked and be what I was meant to be. I don’t want to be this. I….” She pulled her hands from her pockets then and yanked her sleeve up. “This is moving along my skin like it wants to be free. Like if I were to go outside and strip down that I could change and be what I…. I want your brother to take me back where he found me, and for you to never come near me again.” The marks on her arm were moving, the web-like marks almost pulsing. He desperately wanted to touch her, but she backed up when he answered her.

“That’s not possible, and I think you know that as well.” He stood and she backed away from him more. He let her as he moved to the cabinet and took out two glasses. “I take it my mom knows what you are, as well as my dad. Can I know?”

He poured them both a glass of iced tea and sat one across from him at the table and took his to the other end and sat down with it. He wasn’t sure she would sit, and he had no idea why he knew she needed something sweet to drink, but he sat very still waiting for her to move. When she sat down and picked up the glass and drained it, he pushed his toward her. She did the same to it.

“Thank you. I need a lot of sweets when I’m stressed.” She looked at him as he stood up, got the pitcher, and poured both glasses full again. She picked up the third glass and drank it down, and shook her head when he asked her if she needed a refill.

“Can we start over?” She looked at him, panicky, and he smiled. “I mean from the beginning. My name is Sebastian Bowen. My parents are Corrine and George. As you know, I’m a panther, a full blood. I own the computer store downtown where you met my assistant, Debby, the other day.”

“I’m not sure she’s all there. Debby, I mean. She is a woman who has some major commitment issues, and not the sort that has a man wanting to be with her.” He laughed and told her he agreed with her. “I’m Amarizi Auburn, but I prefer to be called Ama. I don’t know my father, and my mother is…. I’m an earth faerie, or so this man told me a few years ago. I have a job working in a pizza place for Peter Gunn.”