Unbound: Shifters Forever Worlds(25)

Glory shook her head. She couldn’t tell him. Not when he was contemplating doing battle again. And this time against Perry, an ivy shifter who could potentially kill him far more easily that he might kill Perry. So she lied. “After losing you before.”

“Let’s go.” Dane indicated the forest with a nod of his head. “I want to get this settled and get on with my life.”

Glory saddened. His life. A life without her.

What did I expect, really? That we’d go back to the old days? Just because?





* * *



Glory, Dane, Range and his men came upon Perry’s body ten minutes after they’d started following his scent.

Glory knew before she saw him that something had happened. The air was rich with the scent of blood. So much blood could only mean one thing.

Death.

Dane barreled forward. Glory struggled to keep up with his long legs, and within seconds she’d been passed by Range and his men.

The men were gathered in a tight circle, studying the ground in front of them. She slipped between them.

Perry.

Very definitely dead.

Morton and Bill stood by a tree, looking like they were concerned they’d be attacked by Dane and Range.

“He wouldn’t back off,” Morton said.

“He kept insisting we didn’t do our job and…” Bill shrugged.

“You saved me some time.”

“He wasn’t easy.” Bill wiped the blood that was dripping down from a cut on his forehead.

“He’s an ivy.” Range nodded. “Dane, you go ahead. We’ll take care of this body and the badger’s body. Go on home. We’ll be on our way as soon as that’s done. Our work here is complete.”

“Tell my aunt thank you.”

“Will do.”

“It’s over,” Glory said.

“It’s very over.” Dane pulled her into his arms. This time when he tipped her head back, she saw the question in his eyes.

“You still have something to tell me,” he said.

“I can show you.” She owed him. She watched the wounds on his face begin a slow healing. “Do you need to hibernate so you can heal quickly?”

“I’m not in a hurry. I’ll hibernate later. You’ll be there, right?”

Forever.

She couldn’t say that. He wasn’t asking her to be with him. He was asking her to stand by and watch over him while he heal-hibernated.

“I’ll be there.”

He pulled her close, the storm in his eyes piercing hers. A soft growl rumbled in his chest.

He leaned down, his lips taking hers, bruising them, claiming, and owning her soul and her ivy. His fingers cupped her cheeks then moved to her jawline. Tongue parting her lips, he pressed her resistance away, making her lips his as surely as he’d made her heart his.

His mouth seared to hers the same way his snow leopard reached out to her ivy, sending the shifter within her the message that human ears would never be able to hear.

Her chest burned, hurting with a need for air. She gasped, realizing she’d been holding her breath. Her hands rose, tangling in his hair, nails scoring his scalp, dragging his face lower, yearning to be lost in this kiss, wishing that it would last forever, not just for the duration of one kiss. Years and years of pushing life away came out in her kiss. She had to take him into her, if only for this one final time, before he returned to his life in Hollywood.





15





Dane let her kiss him, let her guide their kiss into everything she was feeling. She released her grief and love in that kiss. She submitted to him and yet claimed him, her strength took his breath away. He knew she’d suffered, but he had a feeling that he didn’t know how much.

Eyes wide open, he studied the face he’d never forgotten, the very same face that haunted him nightly. He remembered their time together. His cock remembered it also, as it twitched within his pants. he remembered what it was like when he entered her body, pushing himself so deep in her, loving the way her eyes grew wide as he penetrated her folds and at the same time penetrated her soul, marking her as his though he hadn’t couple bonded with her.

A roar deep in his brain, his snow leopard reminded him that there was something better than memories.

But first he had something else he and his leopard needed. They needed the answer to the secret deep in the emerald depths of her eyes.

“So what do you need to tell me?”

“Come with me.” she took his hand and led them out of the forest toward the fields, and still forward, through more fields and forest, stopping finally outside the secret garden.

She unlocked the door with a key she’d hidden under a loose stone near the threshold.

Opening the door, he let her precede him into a place that had become sacred to booth of them.

She walked up to a rock, a large one, crisscrossed with veins of green and gray. Stopping in front of the rock, she lowered herself to her knees, tears streamed down her face.





* * *



“I was pregnant with your — our — baby.” Her voice broke, and she exploded into sobs, releasing years of heartbreak. Years and years, over more than just the baby, more than just Dane.

His arms wrapped around her, firm, hard, holding her, taking her pain into himself and his leopard.