Authors: Mallory Hart
Chapter 8
Her throat and mouth felt completely dry as her legs began shaking. She was going to be mauled by a tiger on an island in the middle of nowhere, and the man who she hated, but sometimes loved too, won’t even find her remains. Tears sprung up to her eyes now as the reality set in.
The tiger sniffed and bared its fangs. It could smell her fear, she knew. Droplets of sweat popped up on the back of her neck.
“Please, no,” she said in a small, trembling voice as if the animal could understand her.
But this tiger was especially not interested in being swayed. It crouched even lower; she knew he was going to pounce. Her heart seized as the tiger lunged forward as she let out a scream that shook the oasis.
But just as she was sure she’d breathe her last breath, a flurry of flesh tumbled before her, and she found herself yanked towards the side as the tiger sliced through the air with its claws.
“Jack!” Her voice bordered hysteria as her pitch rose in terror. He glared down at her.
“You went off alone.” His voice was protective and possessive as always. She squirmed beneath his stare.
The tiger wasn’t interested in waiting for Jack’s lecture. It lunged forward at him.
In the next moments, she couldn’t be sure of what happened. Jack pushed the tiger back, meeting it square on with extended arms as he forced it away from her. The tiger’s jaws opened wide, but Jack readied himself to attack first. Allison let loose a blood-curdling scream, shielding her eyes from seeing the inevitable.
A deep roar shook the water with a terrible quake. Her eyes flew open to see the tiger no longer struggling with Jack, but with an enormous lion.
Her mouth hung open as her heart surged in disbelief. No. There was no way a lion could suddenly appear out of nowhere.
The two bloodthirsty animals fought ferociously as she slid with her back against the wall, doing nothing but helplessly watch as they bared fangs and threw sharp claws at one another.
Her mind was reeling. Where had Jack gone?
She watched in horror, as the tire tore into the lion’s side. The lion cried out in pain, and with a renewed fury, it lunged at its opponent’s throat with a bite to kill. It held on to the tiger’s throat with its deadly jaws, and the tiger’s body slowly slumped down and dropped against the hard ground, its blood seeping down the rock it laid upon. Several minutes later, the lion finally let go of its grip on the dead tigers throat, licking its chops and looked back at Allison.
It was just the two of them now. The woman and the deadly lion.
Sweat poured from her in thick droplets trickling down the back of her neck. Her heart was exploding in her chest painfully. An eerie chill washed over the air as the lion turned to face her.
There was a familiar look in its honey-colored eyes. She tried to swallow through her dry, sandpaper throat. She must be going crazy from the traumatic events of the past two weeks, she thought.
Suddenly, her eyes flew to a spattering of tiny blood marks on the side of the lion’s hulking body. His powerful limbs flexed, and she froze, admiring the muscles of his majestic form. Her eye spotted the wound. It was a large scratch on the side of his ribs, seeping out a drizzle of blood. Not understanding why, she was flooded with worry and panic. The lion’s nostrils flared as he continued to stare.
The lion stalked ominously towards Allison. She opened her mouth to scream, but only a strange wail of utter fear came out. She stood up from her spot and looked around behind her to find the best path to flee.
“You’re one tough lady to protect, you know that? Trouble seems to find you like bees to honey.”
Jack?
Her eyes snapped back to where he stood, the same place the lion had been just a moment ago. He was stark naked, panting heavily, with a nasty cut on his ribs.
She sucked in a deep breath. “Jack? How-?”
He held her gaze with the intensity she could never get used to. “I need to explain something to you.”
She was seized with two conflicting urges–the first was to run away from him, sure that her life was in danger once again. The second was to run to him to help him stop the bleeding that was dripping down his leg in earnest.
“Y–you’re hurt,” she finally managed in a barely audible whisper.
He should his head, chuckling in apparent amusement. “What, this? Don’t worry. You should see the other guy.”
She stared in awe as the large wound seemed to stop bleeding of its own accord. Soon she saw new flesh weave itself together where once was a nasty open gash. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d walked toward him for a closer examination. She ran her fingers along the ripples of his ribs in amazement. Her curious fingers then wandered down to his muscular abs, and her eyes unconsciously traveled down his torso. She gasped as his hard body stood proudly in the oasis. A smirk broke through his cold exterior.
“My shorts should be back there by a few feet if you want to grab them.
She turned her back quickly and trotted down the path beyond the curve to see his shorts, discarded in a heap on the ground. When she returned, he refused to cover himself. Her cheeks burned as she handed over the clothing to him. He laughed, and she shivered as the smell of his naked skin, warmed and battle-torn, hit her nostrils.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why you have a monster for a pilot,” he said bitterly as he dragged the shorts on. She turned as she heard the zipper being pulled up. He walked towards the tiger’s corpse and began dragging the body by its hind legs.
“It’s not exactly a prime cut of steak,” he called out to her as he headed toward their camp, “but I’d say this thing will keep us fed for a couple days before it goes bad. Let’s talk after lunch.”
Allison’s stomach for once didn’t swirl in revulsion but instead grumbled in anticipation.
“I’m not exactly a fan of eating the meat of an endangered species, but since this tiger did just try to eat me...”
“It’s kind of a poetic justice, isn’t it. That’s how the circle of life works out here in the wild,” Jack’s said with a grim face. “Trust me, I should know.”
Chapter 9
After hungrily devouring a few pieces of tiger meat, strength seemed to course through Allison’s starved body and she sighed in satisfaction.
Jack, who had devoured a much larger portion–saying he didn’t want to see it go to waste–sat quietly at the camp, deep in thought.
“What do you say we go back to that spot with the waterfall,” he said after awhile. “It’s peaceful there.” He stood up and held out his hand for her to take.
She stood up and cautiously took his hand, feeling him tense with her touch. She followed his lead as he headed towards a cavern carved out underneath the waterfall, his bare feet hitting the sandy ground. Her feet were grateful for a break from the heated earth, as the stone cavern was much cooler. It opened up to part of the oasis and was covered mostly by the waterfall.
The stones were smooth, worn by water over many years, and she shivered at the melding coolness hitting the hot air that was drifting in from outside. Jack sat in a dry area on the edge and patted the space beside him. The terrain was bumpy and she had to settle herself close to him, knees brushing as they sat together on the ground.
“My dad,” he said after awhile in a quiet voice. “He was like this too.”
She wanted to stare at him incredulously, but she fought to soften her reaction. He always carried himself so proudly; seeing him so vulnerable now was almost distressing. How long had he been keeping this big a secret?
“I’m not sure when he became like this, or how, but he passed it down to me. We lived in the country, far from most people, but close to an aboriginal village that had been there for centuries.” He cleared his throat as he cast his eyes to the side with a torn face. “He didn’t mean to...but he did. He terrorized them for years. I couldn’t understand what we were when he told me. The shifting, it happens early. It can happen when you’re stressed. If you don’t learn to control it, it controls you, and my father certainly let it control him.”
She listened, hanging on every word as his eyes grew glassy with memories. What was he seeing in his mind? How had he managed to hide this from her?
“I don’t know what to say,” she finally managed. He looked up with a sudden twist.
“You don’t have to be sorry for a beast like me,” he fired back with a dark laugh. Hurt flooded her as she sat there searching for something better to say.
“Th-thank you for telling me.”
He didn’t have to tell her about the raw pain dancing behind his eyes–she saw it there as clear as the cool liquid from the waterfall. He sat there in silence, his mind drifted off to some far away memory–perhaps about his father, or his tormented life as a lion shifter.
“Back in Brisbane when we were dating,” she murmured, “the times you disappeared for several days without a trace…You were so secretive about where you were, what you were doing. I just thought…I thought the secret you kept was that you were out there cheating on me.”
“I know that’s what you assumed,” he told her. “And I know that’s what your
friend
Chloe led you to believe.” He shrugged. “I just let you think it because it still seemed like a better explanation than the truth.” He laughed darkly at the memory of it.
“What do you mean Chloe led me to believe it?”
“She reported to you that she saw me getting too friendly with another woman, didn’t she? Well, that wasn’t exactly the truth.”
Allison raised her eyebrow in suspicion.
“She came to me one day,” he continued. “She threatened to break us apart if I didn’t agree to stay away from you. At first, I thought she wanted to be with me instead, but it became clear that she wanted to you to herself.” He snorted. “And I thought I was the possessive one.”
“Jack, this is ridiculous. Why would Chl–”
“Look, Alli. I didn’t want to let you go. I wanted to fight for you. But I realized she was right; I was selfish to want to keep you.”
She reached her hand out tentatively to him, wanting to hold him in support, but only managed to softly place her hand on his.
“You deserve better than to share a life with a beast like me,” he said in a husky, defeated voice.
“A-are you telling me you’re a danger to me?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. But I would never hurt you.” His eyes watched her steadily, making her heart skip wildly, but he soon looked away, off into the distance. “I make it habit to go out nightly as a lion. It’s good practice to control my nature. If I prolong the inevitable, it becomes more difficult to contain my more basic instincts.”
A thick silence fell between them; each person lost in their thoughts. She remembered the first night he’d made love to her back when they’d first met. She smoothed the dampness down her neck with a sigh, remembering the intensity of that night. It was like lightning had struck her, just like in the movies. Her desire for him was so immediate, so powerful. She chanced a glance in his direction and saw that his nostrils flared, his eyes trained on her as though his gaze was a physical touch. She was beginning to wonder if he was thinking about that night too. She thought of the way his skin felt against her own with an internal groan. His eyes flashed, and she knew that he could sense it–the aching within her. Her nipples peaked beneath the fabric of the white shirt she was wearing. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip with promise.
“I let you walk away,” he said, his voice a low growl, “but every time I saw you, it took all my self-control not to rip off your clothes and take you.”
A rush of adrenaline hit her. There was no going back. The hard lump in her throat assured her of that.
“Jack.” Her whisper was hoarse. Desire coursed through her. Her nerves felt raw, her chest open. She brushed her trembling fingers up over her thighs. His gaze followed, and she flushed underneath that burning stare. She quivered as she felt his hand touch her cheek.
He’d always been primal, but now the fire in his eyes undid her. He said her name, tasting it with pleasure. “Alli.”
She felt a heat spread through her core as her hands reached out before she could stop him. They fluttered over the rugged expanse of his chest, teasing his skin with sweet caresses. He groaned underneath her touch and leaned in towards her. Her hands ran over the back of his neck, and he let out a ragged breath.
“I won’t hold back,” he warned her. “You make me crazy. Your scent drives me wild.”
She flushed and paused before gaining enough courage. “What...what do I smell like?”
His hand grabbed one of her wrists with a forceful grip, and he lifted it to his mouth. She moaned as his tongue darted out to taste the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. Lust enveloped her in a frustrating embrace.
“Like paradise. You’re a madman’s dream.”
Her skin pulsed beneath his touch. He inhaled deeply, pressing her wrist to his lips. The day faded around them, their fire would be dying out soon. But, none of that mattered to her. The sun would set in a few hours and she only wanted to be screaming his name well into the night.
Touch. She wanted to touch him and to be touched. To feel his powerful arms wrapped around her as he filled her up. A pleading groan dropped from her mouth as her chest blossomed with longing. His eyes snapped open and his vision lasered in on her face, lips open and begging.
He let out a real growl, low and feral. Her muscles tensed with excitement at the sound. It was a symphony of lust, begging her to give in. She closed her eyes as the lightest breeze brushed over them, drifting in from the opening. When she opened them, she could feel them glazed over with desire and wanting as he faced her.
“What do you want?” he demanded in a seductive lull. His fingers feathered up her arms. She surrendered to his touch.
“You know what I want,” she panted, closing her eyes.
His eyes darkened. “Tell me you want me,” he said roughly as his fingers held her chin, forcing her to look into his chaos. “Say it.”
She licked her lips, panting. “I want you, Jack. All of you. The beast inside–let him come get me.”
His hand snaked to grasp the back of her head with a tantalizing force.
“Don’t hold back, my lion, my king,” she echoed. Her ache leapt to fulfill his every need. She pushed her breasts against his chest, the hardened nipples scraping his skin. He hissed in pleasure as her mouth hovered beneath his ear. “I need you inside of me. Please.” She would beg on her knees if he made her.
A moment passed between them and then she was suddenly being lifted from their spot. With a grunt, he dragged her upwards with a searing kiss. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She obeyed, tightening her tanned limbs around him with a vice-like strength. They moaned at the contact. The gap between her thighs was slick with desire and he could feel it on his naked skin through the thin fabric. He groaned as she grinded into him.
“Here,” he said as he leaned her against a wet smooth stone, naturally rising out of the ground to form a makeshift seat. “I want to make you scream.” His heavy whisper in her ear made her gasp as the thundering vibrations of the waterfall behind them sent a pleasing tremor through both of their bodies.
There was a smooth patch of grass behind them where a light stream of cool water fell from the cracking rocks above them. She slithered off the stone and walked away from him in slow steps. Her body twisted like an elegant dancer, a far cry from the stumbling woman she’d left behind in Brisbane. The water cascaded over her heated skin and she turned to tug the tight white fabric of her shirt down. He groaned as he watched her nipples show beneath the cloth and she watched him like he was her prey, smiling devilishly in victory.
Her hands fluttered up her stomach, caressing her own skin. She massaged both of her breasts with a firm touch and he leaned against the rock, watching with an open mouth. Her fingers played with the hardened pink nubs underneath the see-through fabric and she moaned in delight. Her mind imagined him taking her underneath the waterfall, droplets of water showering them as he thrust himself inside of her.
From the corner of her eye, she saw his hand dip below the band of his shorts. With a spike of pride, she ran her tongue over her lips, tasting the earthy flavor of the liquid. He moaned and she slipped one hand down to touch the outside of her soaked lace panties. He let out a ragged breath and shot off the stone with a sudden movement.
She gasped as he dragged her wet body up against his strong muscles. Her eyes rolled back as his hardness brushed against her. He grinded into her with no mercy and she bucked against him with a stifled scream.
“Do that again.” She obeyed his gruff command instantly. Her gaze swept over his face as she watched it contort in agonized pleasure. A molten-hot thrill rushed through her. Without thinking, her fingers danced down his chiseled abs and rested on his hardened member through the fabric of his shorts. His breathing grew heavy as a tremor went through him. She forced him back against the boulder he’d set her on earlier.
Payback
.
Spurned on by his delicious reactions, she began to stroke him and he buckled under her touch. She started slow and teasing, feeling him pulse beneath her. It made her feel powerful. She grew more bold, pumped her fingers more firmly around him and faster than before. His chest heaved up and down. She gave one last pump before finally snagging the metal zipper of his shorts. His eyes fluttered open just as she dropped to her knees, the mossy patch of earth soft against her legs. He let out a frustrated exhale and she smiled.
With a quick tug, she eased the shorts down to release him. Her mouth watered as his hardened member, fully erect for her viewing pleasure, brushed her bruised lips. Her eyes glanced upward to see him, a rare pleading look of desperation crossing his handsome face. She felt a version of his smirk flutter to her face and he lost it.
When she licked the tip, he let out a howl of pleasure. Her tongue rolled over it with a firmer pressure and his legs shook against the smooth rock. She licked up and down the length before finally taking him in completely. He threw his head back as his hands gripped the back of her head, begging her to move her mouth up and down.
“All,
fuck
.”
She hummed and he cursed wildly as the vibrations rocked him while she began to bob her head back and forth. His hands aided in the rhythm. As his breathing grew ragged, his control slipped and his hands dropped to grip the stone with a desperate motion. When she tightened her lips around him with powerful technique, he growled and tugged her off of him.
“We’re not finishing like that,” he told her in a hoarse voice. “I’m going to make you cry my name until it hurts.”
He kicked off his shorts and hauled her over to the miniature waterfall. She dropped her body onto the grassy area, writhing playfully as she looked up at him on her back. Her hands squeezed her breasts and he pounced.
“You’re such a tease,” he said with labored breath as he smashed his lips on her own. His hands found the space between her thighs and he sunk one finger in. She arched her back in ecstasy as he added another, pumping in and out of her with a merciless speed. Her voice cracked, cry fading in her throat, as he smirked down at her.