Talon (Rise of the Pride, Book 1) (23 page)

“Why?” she asked after several minutes.

“I couldn’t let you die,” he answered,
reaching over to stroke her hair, pushing it behind her ear. She
inhaled his scent and purred in response. “You are beautiful.”

“Oh my God, Evie!” she squealed, trying to
sit up in the bed, but fell on her back with a groan.

“She’s fine, thanks to you.” He scowled. “But
if you ever overstep me and go off on your own to rescue one of our
pride, I will punish you.”

“You wouldn’t,” she gasped, sitting up
straighter in the bed. Talon moved back slightly, but didn’t offer
any help. He watched her carefully, allowing Liberty to move
freely.

“I will blister your tail, Liberty Raines,”
he growled. “I found that note in your car.”

“I couldn’t let you die,” she replied, giving
him the same answer that he’d given her. The very thought of Talon
not existing caused a knot to form in her throat.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he ordered, but
his powers didn’t pulse with his demand. “I’m serious, Liberty. Our
pride would’ve brought her home.”

“Wait,” she snapped, stopping him from
threatening any more bodily harm. Although the thought of him
spanking her playfully sent an ache low in her belly. “You said our
pride?”

“You are one of us now,” he explained, then
frowned. “Unless you want to find another pride.”

“Like I know of any other panthers besides
you…er, I mean, us.” She snorted. “Of course I want to be a part of
your pride.” She stretched and felt most of the pain from shifting
easing out of her body. Her panther had settled somewhere in the
back of her mind, letting Liberty’s human side take over. It was
getting easier to move with each passing minute.

“I love you,” he blurted, leaning over to put
his face closer to hers. “You start fires within my heart, Liberty
Raines. I want you to be my mate…my queen.”

“Talon,” she cooed. She wanted to tell him
her feelings, too. “I think I fell in love with you the day you
kissed me in the bar.”

“Which time?” he smirked, looking
playful.

“The day you touched me and I felt something
jolt inside my soul. The day you put your hands on me for the first
time and called me your mate.” She leaned forward, placing a hand
on his cheek, leaning in to press a soft kiss to his lips.

With a snarl, Talon leapt, taking her back to
the mattress. His lips found her neck, his slightly rough tongue
licked at the marks at her neck. “Please be my mate, forever?”

“Yes, Talon,” she breathed. “Make me your
queen.”

She unleashed a claw, drawing down the side
of his jeans. A slight thrill ran through her at hearing the fabric
tear open. With one hard yank, they ripped from his body. “That’s
so cool.”

Their bodies came together in a tangle of
limbs as Talon nestled between her legs, his face buried against
her soft folds. The first pass of his tongue had Liberty’s eyes
rolling into the back of her head. The second pass, she was digging
her hands into his hair, begging with unrecognizable words.

“Please, Talon,” she purred, feeling the
vibrations in her own chest.

“Are you sure?” he asked, rising up to his
knees.

Instead of speaking her words, she remembered
how he’d said it was to be done. She quickly got on all fours,
dropping her shoulders to the mattress, her ass presented to him.
Strong hands grasped her hips and she yelped when he thrust inside
her.

His hands wrapped around her hair, pulling
her back up to meet him. Her panther pushed forward in her mind,
allowing her canines to grow. His warm chest met her back as his
arm wrapped around her ribs, holding her in place. His teeth sunk
into her neck and she had to blink to keep from passing out from
the climax that hit her with the force of a Mack truck. She heard
the pop and creak of the bed as he fucked her. There were sounds of
things breaking, but she really didn’t care at the moment. Liberty
was completely lost in the pleasure.

Talon continued to thrust inside her, raising
her pleasure even higher, but Liberty had the overwhelming urge to
mark him. She bucked against him, her panther snarling and
demanding her mate release his hold. As soon as Talon let go of his
hold around her waist, Liberty flipped him over, straddling his
hips and taking his cock back into her body.

“
Mine
,” she snarled, leaning over and
sinking her teeth into the spot where his neck met his shoulder.
Talon’s roar rattled the walls as he pumped into her from his
position beneath her. One hand landed on her hip, but she was too
far gone in the pleasure to really pay attention to the odd sounds
in the room.

His blood entered her mouth and she tore her
lips away, only returning to the spot to drag her tongue across the
wound, her saliva healing it just enough to close the wound and
leave a scar for all females to see.

“I am yours,” he smiled, rolling Liberty over
onto her back. “And you are mine.”

“Always,” she said, and then paused, looking
up. “Did you break the headboard?”

“Ahh, yeah,” he laughed. “We don’t need one
anyway.”

“If you are that destructive every time we
make love,” she snickered. “Then we definitely don’t need one.”

“I was going easy on you.” He blushed. “I
didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m not breakable, Talon,” she flirted. “I
can take you.”

“We’ll see about that,” he growled, pushing
his hardness back inside her.

Talon spent the next several hours showing
Liberty just how panthers mated in their human form.

Chapter Sixteen

Nova had the day off. She’d spent most of the
morning helping her sister pack her things since she would be
living with Talon as his mate. She giggled out loud when she
remembered telling Liberty, “I told you so!” Those books of hers
were apparently spot on.

It was a nice day out, the temperatures warm
for a fall afternoon. She threw on her boots and made her way to
the old tool shed out back. She opened the door and grabbed the
rake, along with several black trash bags. Today, she would forget
about the blonde shifter who’d been hanging at the bar for the past
two weeks. He watched her like a hawk and it made her
uncomfortable. He’d consoled her by staying with her while Liberty
was missing.

Winter Blue was ten times her size and that
intimidated her. The man hovered around her, but never touched her.
Every time she would get close, he would sidestep her or move just
enough to put a few feet between them.

Liberty had told her that the shifters didn’t
touch females, mated or not. The first touch was all it took for
them to know who their mates were. They’d been trained from an
early age that touching a mated female brought them pain. So, they
refrained from touching
any
female.

She paused and sighed. In all honesty, the
thought of Winter touching her sent shivers all over her body.
There was no denying that he was strong. The man’s shoulders were
so wide that he had to turn sideways just to walk through a
doorway. His icy blue eyes were mesmerizing and she’d caught
herself a few times gazing into them. His disheveled blonde hair
looked soft, and she wondered if it felt that way when you ran your
fingers through it.

“Oh my God, Nova! Stop it!” she scolded
herself.

“Stop what?” Winter interrupted.

“Shit!” she yelped, jumping back and dropping
the rake. “You scared the hell out of me!”

“Sorry,” he apologized. The corner of his lip
lifted into a predatory smirk and Nova felt her knees wobble
slightly.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, picking
up the garden tool. Nova felt herself blush and she hoped like hell
she could pass it off as exertion from working outside.

“Liberty asked me to come by on my way home
to pick up the last of her boxes,” he answered. Winter smiled and
Nova’s insides did a backflip. She wanted to melt right there in
her yard. The man was stunning, beautiful even. There was no way a
man like him would want a girl like her. She really needed to get
over this little crush she had on the Guardian.

“Sure,” she nodded. “Let me set this stuff by
the tree.”

“Take your time,” he said.

Nova walked over to the old oak tree in the
back yard. It’d been smaller when she and Liberty were younger. The
low branches were perfect for climbing. That was until Nova fell
out of the tree and broke her arm when she was nine years old.
After that, her mother forbid them to climb the tree.

She froze, looking down at a print on the
ground. Her body shook, remembering what had happened to Evie and
her sister. This wasn’t a panther print.

“W…Winter,” she stammered, dropping the bags
in her hand.

“What is it? Nova?” he panicked, running up
to her side. He didn’t make a move to touch her.

She couldn’t answer. Wrapping an arm around
her waist, Nova pointed and watched as Winter’s eyes followed the
line of her arm to the paw print on the ground. She’d seen the
panther’s prints so many times over the past few weeks that she’d
know them anywhere. This print was totally different and it didn’t
take a genius to realize it didn’t belong to her friends.

“Get in the fucking house, Nova,” he barked.
“Now!”

She ran, jumping onto the back porch and
throwing open the door. She immediately sat heavily into the chair
at the kitchen table, dragging in huge breaths. Trying to calm
herself, she looked for Winter. He’d just stepped into the house,
throwing the lock on the door. His face had paled slightly. She
heard him move through the house, checking all of the windows. The
last thing she heard was the deadbolt on the front door engage
before he reentered the kitchen, the phone to his ear.

“Boss,” Winter growled into the phone. “The
wolves haven’t left. They’re still here.”

Nova heard the alpha curse loudly through
Winter’s phone.

He watched her cautiously. As well he should,
because Nova was scared shitless. She’d seen her sister go through
hell because of the wolves.

“No one will hurt you,” Winter promised, a
deathly snarl leaving his lips. “I won’t let them.”

And somehow…she believed him.

“Apparently, my dumb fucking cousins couldn’t
pull their heads out of their asses and kidnap the leader,” the
wolf alpha cursed. “
They were supposed to kill him!
”

“I thought you would let me go when I sniffed
out the alpha’s mate,” the young panther snarled. “You
promised!”

“Shut up, boy!” the man holding him captive
yelled, backhanding Malaki hard enough to split his lip. “I want
that alpha! He should’ve never told our secret!”

“Let us go!” Malaki roared, feeling an
overwhelming urge to protect that pride. It’d been his own foolish
mistake trying to take on the pack of wolves that had come in and
killed his pride weeks ago. He’d been drugged and taken to a place
he had never been to before and held captive. He didn’t even know
if he was still in Tennessee. These wolves were sneaky, cunning,
and would stop at nothing to keep their kind out of the spotlight
of the humans.

He knew that he had to warn the pride. But
how? He couldn’t call out to any alpha because his leader was dead.
The cell phone he’d stolen from one of the pride members he’d
followed had lost its battery power after he’d made that text to
the alpha. It had been the only way to save the two females.

“Drug him until we are ready for him to get
us answers,” the wolf ordered the man that was in charge of keeping
them locked in cages. “Maybe I will have a little fun with your
sister over there.”

“
No!
” Malaki struggled to stop the man
who was moving closer to Calla’s cage. She was huddled in the
corner, tears streaming down her face. They kept collars on them
that were made with sharp spikes, ensuring that if they shifted,
they would die. Malaki was only allowed out of his the few times he
was sent to get information for the wolves.