CHAPTER 16
Twenty-three days, nineteen hours, forty-one minutes and seventeen seconds had passed since Talon had told his secret to someone for the first and last time.
He paced the deserted village, working off some energy, trying to keep his head and his heart from twisting him in knots as he waited.
She would come.
He had risked everything for her, had told her the one thing he had felt sure would drive her away forever and could have ended up damning his pride.
He hadn’t been able to stop himself though.
The need to make Sherry his mate had been too fierce, was still too strong, easily stealing control of him and driving out all sense and reason, leaving him mastered by his feelings.
He had sworn to give her a choice.
He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he had made her believe that nothing bad would happen if they mated and he bound them together with his bite.
It would have destroyed him.
So he had told her his secret.
Gods, she had been shocked. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw her pretty mouth opening in a startled O and her blue eyes widening, filling with feelings that had ranged from surprise to fear, and everything in between.
He liked to hope there had been a lot of love mingled in there too.
And that there still was.
He hoped she trusted him as deeply as he trusted her.
Loved him as deeply as he loved her.
Sherry had been silent as he had confessed everything, had bared the part of him he had been warned to keep hidden at all costs, risking it all.
He wasn’t just a tiger.
Somewhere way back in his family tree, one of his ancestors had cross-bred with another shifter species to bring added strength to their bloodline and place them in a position of power within tiger society.
The species of feline shifter they had chosen to mate with was the strongest, born of the fires of another realm, both dangerous and beautiful.
And the only species that could turn people.
Hellcats.
With each generation, the effects were growing weaker, but he and his siblings still had enough hellcat blood in their genes to make them stronger than normal tigers, and able to turn others with their bite.
Talon turned and strode towards the woods, kicking his boots off as he went. He lost his shirt somewhere along the way too, leaving it behind in the forest, his feet carrying him along the path as his thoughts flowed like a torrent, pulling him towards the lake.
Had she changed her mind?
He lifted his head, dragged night air over his teeth and tried to scent her.
Nothing.
She had changed her mind.
He rubbed the centre of his bare chest, trying to ease the ache building there. He had to trust her. She had said she would come.
It had been her idea.
But gods, she had looked so afraid when he had mentioned hellcat blood, had brought up some damned human hunter who had been turned by one and had almost died.
Talon had been filled with a need to reassure her, to gather her into his arms and tell her he would never let that happen to her, that he couldn’t lose her and would rather not mate with her than put her through something that might kill her.
She had stopped him just before his hands had reached her, halting him with a handful of words.
Four wonderful ones.
It wouldn’t stop me.
Fuck, he had switched places with her in that moment, staring at her and reeling from the shock that had rushed through him, his head spinning as he had tried to take it in and believe he had heard her right.
Double fuck, but she had never looked more beautiful than she had in that moment when he had asked her whether it really wouldn’t stop her from becoming his mate, and she had stood up to him, all determination and fire, and set him straight.
Her words would be branded on his mind, and his heart forever.
What they had was real. Fast but real. She felt that deep down, in her heart.
When he had asked whether she would really go through with it for him, she had hit him with a response that fitted her so perfectly.
She had said she would do it for herself, because she didn’t want just a few years with him.
He had told her that she had all the time in the world to make her decision, which had been the toughest fucking thing he had ever had to say because he needed her as his mate, felt as if he was going to lose his mind if it didn’t happen soon.
It was going to happen.
He scented the air again.
She would come.
It had been her idea after all.
Two nights ago, in a back room of Underworld, she had told him she was ready.
At first, he had figured she was about to climax, but she had made it startlingly clear she meant something else, something world-changing for them both.
She wanted to be his mate.
Fuck, it had taken all of his willpower to stop himself from sealing the deal right then and there.
Somehow, he had found the strength to stop himself and to give her time to think it over, because they both needed to be sure, and if he had gone through with it then, he would have been haunted by the thought she had merely been caught up in the heat of the moment.
So he had given her time.
Two torturous days in which he had stayed away from her, living at the pride’s old village, waiting for her to show up.
He charted the position of the moon, grunted when he realised it was visible now, skimming the tops of the mountains as it rose full and beautiful.
She was late.
He paced the shoreline, desperately trying to pull his shit together.
She would show.
He shoved his fingers through his black hair, clawing it back and tugging on it. She would show.
He stopped dead, cold racing through him.
What if she didn’t?
He pivoted on his heel, a need to return to his car and drive all the way back to London blasting through him. He made it three steps before he pulled on the reins and stopped himself. He had sworn he would give her time.
Shit, if she needed two years, ten or twenty, he would give them to her.
This was a monumental decision for her.
He knew in his heart that she wouldn’t die from his bite, because he had seen his aunt go through the process. She had been mortal, turned in secret by his uncle against the wishes of the pride’s alpha at the time, Talon’s father and his uncle’s brother. When his father had discovered what had happened, his uncle had been punished, outlawed from the pride. Talon had often wondered whether it had hurt his uncle, and whether he would have chosen not to turn her if he had known doing so would see him kicked from the pride. Before meeting Sherry, he had thought his uncle would have chosen the pride over her. Now, he knew his uncle had chosen the right path.
Even if Byron had told him he would lose his place in the pride, would no longer be welcome there, he still would have chosen to turn Sherry and claim her as his mate.
She would survive this, and she would become like him, and they would be together forever.
But it was going to hurt like a bitch for her.
Pain wasn’t the only problem. It would alter her too, change her entire life, and it was going to take a lot for her to adapt to that. It was going to be hard on her.
But he would be there for her, with her, every step of the way.
Whether those steps started tonight, or in two decades.
Talon began pacing again, the soft sandy soil at the water’s edge cool beneath his feet as he followed the curve of the lake. The air was still, silent save the occasional distant hoot of an owl and the breeze playing through the trees.
Gods.
Where was she?
He couldn’t take much more of this, was going to go insane if she kept him waiting. His pacing quickened, his muscles twitching beneath his skin as he struggled to keep his breathing level and even. Measured. A growl curled up his throat, the restless feeling growing inside him, becoming stronger as he turned to pace back the other way and saw the moon was higher. Time was slipping past.
His teeth ached, gums tingling as his fangs elongated, and he flashed them at the night, his mood degenerating as the thought she wasn’t going to come taunted him.
Tortured him.
He had given her time, and she had changed her mind.
He had let her slip through his fingers.
Talon threw his head back and roared at the starlit sky, unleashing all the fear, pain and panic in one long silence-shattering bellow. It did nothing to calm his mood, or quell his need to shift.
He had to run.
He needed to run until his bones ached, his muscles trembled, and he passed out from the exertion.
He stripped his trousers off, kicked them aside, and growled through clenched teeth as fur rippled over his skin and the familiar burn began in the marrow of his bones.
Pain ricocheted through him, brief but sweet, making him feel alive as his body transformed and he fell to all fours on the soft dirt. He snarled and shook his head, fire sweeping over his skull as his nose flattened, jaw shifted, and brow widened. His ears moved upwards, rounded and grew. His fingers dug into the dirt as their bones shortened and flesh deepened, growing around them. Fur covered them and rushed up his arms as they followed his hands’ transformation into paws. He snarled as his legs shifted and his spine stretched, his ribs altering and sending a deeper sort of fire through him.
His tail was always the last to come, springing from the base of his spine like a whip to lash at the night.
Talon lowered his head, breathing hard through the transition, waiting for the pain to fade.
A scent hit him.
Vanilla and honey.
A shiver washed over his skin and he threw his head back and roared again, a triumphant one this time that he felt all the way to his soul.
Sherry.
He kicked off, racing into the forest at top speed and then instantly slowing as his nature stole control, the desire to see his female again rousing an instinct to stalk her, to hunt her and claim victory over her.
To make her belong to him.
He prowled through the dark woods, slinking between each tree with his head held low, each step careful and slow, making no sound that would give him away.
The scent grew stronger as he neared the village, mingled with another familiar one. The female elf. He stilled and focused, barely resisted the urge to growl when he sensed only one female ahead of him, heard only one trembling heartbeat that spoke of nerves.
Talon hunkered down, moving low to the ground as he stalked her through the trees, using his senses to track her.
As he moved out from behind a thick pine trunk, he spotted her.
His breath left him in a rush.
His heart kicked hard against his chest.
Gods, every inch of him was aware of how beautiful she was as she stood bathed in moonlight on the track to the lake, her golden hair down around her shoulders and a silver low-cut top and black jeans hugging her curvy figure.
Mine.
He stalked her as she started to walk, illuminating her path with a flashlight, and watched her from the shadows as her blue eyes darted around, a hint of fear in them as she kept a close eye on the trees.
Could she feel him hunting her?
Was she aware a predator watched her?
Wanted her?
Another growl rolled up his throat and was held back somehow.
A burn started low in his belly and warmed his chest, a need that he knew he would never be able to shake when it came to her.
To his mate.
He moved around so he was behind her, silently broke cover and stepped out onto the track.
She stopped the second he did, her shoulders tensing, but then she did the most amazing thing.
And he fell even deeper in love with her.
Those shoulders relaxed, her hands falling to her sides, and she slowly turned to bestow a smile upon him so dazzling it stole his breath.
“You pissed at me for making you wait?” she said, all light and grace, not a trace of fear in her as she faced him.
Saw him as a tiger for the first time and recognised him.
“Or just enjoying hunting me?” she whispered, voice a low and throaty purr that made that burn in his belly grow hotter.
Fiercer.
The bond between them was already strong if she could feel that the tiger standing before her was him, could recognise him in this form, and they hadn’t even mated yet.
He bared his fangs at her, drew down her scent and growled at the thought of her being his mate, hungry for it to happen because he had felt as if a piece of him had been missing since the day he had met her, a piece that he knew would return when they bonded.
He would feel complete at last.
Her smile held, fucking grew wider if he was being honest, and she braved a step towards him. Her head canted, causing her fall of golden hair to skim across her right breast.
When she reached him, she eased down into a crouch right in front of him, so close he could feel her heat on his fur. He watched her silently, struggling to hold himself back when he wanted to pounce on her, aware that he needed to give her control.
Let everything be her choice.
Her hand lifted, and sweet fucking gods, he purred like a damn cub when she gently cupped his left ear and stroked it, running her palm over it. His hind legs weakened when she pushed her fingers through the thick fur on his cheek and rubbed the spot below his ear.
Talon couldn’t stop himself from rubbing against that hand, needed to mark her with his scent so the whole world would know this incredible woman belonged to him, and he belonged to her.
“I’m sorry I made you wait,” she whispered softly. “I thought it would be funny.”
He didn’t.
He shifted back, tearing a startled gasp from her as she fell backwards, landing on her backside and sending the flashlight spinning and rolling towards the woods.
Talon crawled forwards, forcing her down against the dirt and covering her, holding himself above her on his fists.
“I thought I was going to go mad… thinking you wouldn’t come,” he growled each word, showed her all the pain and hid nothing, so she would know just how much he loved and needed her. “I thought I would never see you again.”
The light in her eyes faded, and her smile slipped away. “I didn’t think about that. Sorry.”
She touched his cheek, and damn, it was bliss, Heaven to him.
Her hand slipped around the back of his neck and she adjusted his idea of Heaven.
She lured him down to her. Welcomed him. Wanted him.
He dropped to his elbows and seized her mouth, kissed her so hard he feared he would hurt her but he couldn’t hold back, needed this contact with her, desperate to feel she was there with him and desperate to be hers.
She looped her arms around his neck, drew him closer and arched against him, rubbing her clothed body against his bare one.
Fuck, he needed her naked, needed to be inside her, and needed to claim her as his mate.
He sucked down a breath and forced himself to break away from her mouth, to back off and do this right, before they both got swept up in the moment.
Sherry gazed up at him, lips swollen from his kiss, eyes heavy with desire, her golden hair spread across the dirt and moonlight washing the colour from her skin.
“You’re sure?” he murmured, part of him not wanting to ask her that because he feared her answer, feared that she might have come here tonight to tell him it wasn’t going to happen yet and he would have to keep waiting.
She stole his heart when she nodded.
“It’s going to hurt.” He was a fucking idiot for continuing, for giving her chances to change her mind, but he couldn’t stop himself, had to be sure.
He didn’t want her regretting tonight.
He wanted it to be wonderful for them both, something they both wanted and would look back on in centuries to come with fondness and joy.
This was going to be the start of their new life, one they would share together.
It had to be wonderful.
He would fucking make sure of that.
“It’s not going to be easy… I’m not going to paint you a pretty picture, Sherry… I’m not going to lie to you. It’s going to hurt, and it’s going to be hard for you…”
She pressed her palm against his cheek, her eyes sincere but shining with determination, stealing his breath as they held his. “But you’ll be there with me, won’t you, Talon? I know you. You won’t let me go through this alone. You’ll be there through it all… for me.”
He nodded, closed his eyes and pressed a deep kiss to her palm. “Every step. I won’t be away from you for a second. I’ll be around so much… fussing over you… that you’ll want me out of your sight.”
He slowly opened his eyes and looked down into hers.
They smiled at him. His heart beat a little harder.
Nerves sent his limbs trembling.
He pulled his shit together again and held her gaze, needing to see the answer in her eyes as well as hear it from her lips.
“You’ll be my mate then?”
He had asked her that question twenty-three days, twenty-one hours, fourteen minutes and nine seconds ago.
Her answer?
One day.
Was that day today?
Sherry linked her hands behind his head and smiled up at him as she lured him back down to her and whispered two words that he was going to record forever together with that look so he would always remember this moment.
“I will.”
Talon dropped his head and captured her lips again. Her kiss seared him as she clutched him to her, a desperate and wild thing in his arms, her actions conveying the impatience that ran through him too.
Gods, she was strong.
Beautiful.
She was taking a tremendous leap to be with him, and it humbled him.
He deepened the kiss, slowed it down despite her attempts to keep it fast and fierce, needing this moment to be perfect. She finally gentled her kiss, sweeping her lips across his, light brushes that had him on the verge of floating in her arms.
Her body arched against his as she moved, and he groaned into her mouth as she wrapped her legs around his waist, hooking her booted feet against his bare backside.
Her little moan as she brought his hard shaft down into contact with her and rubbed against it, maddening him with the friction of her clothing and the need she ignited to be against her flesh-to-flesh, almost undid him.
He rolled onto his back, taking her with him, and tugged at the hem of her top, pulling it up her back.
She broke the kiss and rose off him, tugging off the top and tossing it away from her.
Talon swallowed hard at the sight of her bare breasts, her nipples dark in the moonlight, beaded and calling to him.
He grabbed her around the waist and tried to pull her down to him, but she twisted free of his grip and leaped off him. He growled at her, but she didn’t come back.
She stared off into the distance, along the path she had been taking when he had made his presence known.
“Is that a lake?”
Before he could say that it was, she took off towards it.
Talon rolled onto his knees and groaned.
Sherry bounced along the path ahead of him, stripping off her boots and her jeans as she went.
His groan became a growl when she revealed she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
Damn. He had never seen a backside as beautiful as hers.
He loosed a low snarl and sprang to his feet, launching after her. She looked over her shoulder, squeaked when she saw him sprinting towards her, and quickened her pace.
She wouldn’t be fast enough to evade him until she was a tiger.
Fuck, she was going to be beautiful.
She was going to drive him wild.
He was never going to be able to get enough of her.
He grabbed her from behind just before her right foot hit the water and she laughed as he hauled her up into the air and twisted her in his arms to face him. Her whole face glowed with it, with happiness that looked as foreign to her as it was to him.
One hand came down on his shoulder and the other ploughed through his black hair, slender fingers tugging on it as she pulled his head back. Her mouth claimed his, her kiss fierce again, dominating him in a way he found he loved. He had been in a position of power his entire life, had never submitted to anyone, not even Byron.
He willingly submitted to her.
Her tongue duelled with his, stoking a dangerous need inside him, a dark urge to make her submit to him, to show her just how powerful he was and that he was the only male she needed.
The only one for her.
He growled and seized control of the kiss, and his reward was the sweetest moan he had ever heard.
Gods, his fangs itched, body felt too tight, as if he would explode if he didn’t claim her soon.
He needed to claim her, before she changed her mind, before she could escape him. She had been made for him. She was his everything.
He wanted to be her everything too.
He angled his head and kissed her deeper, sank to his knees at the water’s edge and groaned as her legs parted and slid down his hips, and her warm core met his aching shaft.
It throbbed against her, as eager for her as the rest of him, sending pulses through him that were both pleasure and pain, a sweet torture that he endured as he kissed her. She rubbed against him, rocking her slick heat along his cock, and he groaned again, his breath coming faster in short bursts as he struggled for control.
Her nails scored his shoulders, spurring him on.
He growled and dropped his lips to her throat, devoured every inch of it and nipped at it with his teeth as he grasped her backside and drew her closer, pressed her harder against his shaft. Part of him had hoped it would stop her from driving him mad with the rubbing, but it only encouraged her, only worsened the torture as she rocked on him, breathless little moans leaving her lips and teasing his cheek.
“Talon,” she murmured, a throaty plea that sent a shiver tumbling down his spine and cranked his need higher at the same time as it unleashed the side of him he had been trying to keep under control.
He growled against her skin, his fangs pressed against it, his entire body as tight as a bowstring as he fought to master the urge, the driving need.
Sherry made that impossible.
She rose off him, reached between them, and stroked his cock, easing it down through her slick folds.
Talon roared and had her twisted in his arms in a flash, her back pressed against his chest. She cried out as he drove her down onto his cock, sinking deep into her, trembling deliciously in his arms. He wrapped his arms around her, cupped her breasts and toyed with her nipples as he fought for control again, tried to claw back some semblance of it anyway. He was beyond being in control now, could only hope to hold himself back enough that he didn’t hurt her.
She moaned and rolled her hips, and he shuddered and groaned, pressed his teeth against her shoulder as she tormented him. Her hands came down on his, stroking over them, and then dropped lower, caressing his thighs between hers and then reaching back to run over his hips. She sighed as she lifted her arms and stroked up the back of his head, and held his mouth against her flesh in a way that told him everything.
She did want this.
She welcomed it, needed it as fiercely as he did.
She was ready to become his mate.
He lowered his right hand to the curve of her waist and twisted her hair into his left. She moaned as he pulled on it, tugging her head back, and began moving on him, slow and deep, pushing him to the very brink.
Talon slowly thrust into her, as deep as she could take him, drinking her moans as she arched and tightened her grip on his head, holding on to him. Heat curled in his belly, became a fire that blazed out of control before he could stop it, and he slid his hand up and cupped her breast again, tweaked her nipple and tore another moan from her as he began to quicken his pace, driving harder, deeper still, filling her with every inch of his cock.
She rolled her hips, rotating them in a way that had his heart pounding harder, that brink coming at him faster. She pushed him closer still by lowering one hand and stroking it between her thighs, brushing his cock with her fingers as she teased herself. Too much. He tried to hold back, but it was game over when she cried out as she shattered. The feel of her body milking his propelled him over the edge.
He snarled, clutched her tighter and thrust into her harder, faster, until she was through the haze of one orgasm and climbing towards the next with him. She rocked faster too, a wild little thing in his arms as she bounced on him, moaning with each deep plunge of his cock.
He tightened the fist in her hair, pushed it up the back of her head and exposed the nape of her neck.
A low growl rumbled through him.
The moonlight played across it, luring his eyes to it and keeping them there.
Gods, he needed to mark it.
He swooped on it, laved it with his tongue and shuddered as he tasted her.
The need to lick it seized him, jacked him higher and filled him with desperation, a deep and powerful urge that he couldn’t quite sate or control as he stroked his tongue over her nape, drank her moans and whispered pleas.
He growled, held her harder and thrust deeper, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her.
It was a world away from satisfying him.
There was only one thing that would do that.
He laved her harder, trembled with each one as the fire in his belly spread lower and his balls tightened, tingling with each stroke of his tongue in time with every thrust of his cock into her.
He needed her.
Needed her to be his.
She needed him too.
Gods, he could feel it already.
He could feel her desperation, that wild need she didn’t quite understand but that mastered her, had her writhing and rocking in his arms, trembling as violently as he was as she sought release that refused to come.
He would give it to her, to them both.
He pumped her deeper, harder still, unable to hold himself back. His tongue pressed hard into her nape with each stroke, each thrust, teasing her higher together with him, until he was at the precipice and couldn’t go any higher, couldn’t take it any longer.
“Talon,” Sherry whispered.
A plea and permission all rolled into one.
On a feral growl, he sank his fangs into the back of her neck.
Her cry echoed around the forest, beat in his heart and warmed his soul.
He pulled her against him, plastered her back to his front and buried himself deep inside her as she shook, her body convulsing around his and pushing him over the edge with her. His entire body quaked from the force of his release as he throbbed and spilled inside her, and he fought to remain conscious as her emotions flowed into him, her joy and excitement, and her fear.
Talon closed his eyes and held her with his teeth, and in his arms, keeping her close to him and focusing as best he could so she would feel how much this meant to him.
How he would always be there for her, would be the one to take care of her now, and forever.
Because he was in love with her.
His beautiful mate.
She slowly began to relax against him, little by little sinking into him. He kept her pinned to him, unable to convince his body to do the same, needing to hold on to her. He was probably hurting her, hated that he might be, but his body and mind were ignoring his heart’s attempts to calm them, screamed at him to keep her locked in his arms and in his teeth.
Her blood was warm on his tongue, tasted like honey and vanilla.
“Talon,” she murmured, no trace of pain in her voice even though he knew she was hurting already, that the bliss of the moment was passing and she was growing aware of his fangs in her flesh, and her body as it began the first steps of her transformation.
His mate needed him.
She needed him to comfort her, to take away her pain and her fear.
Instinct as her mate seized him, more powerful than he had expected it to be, overpowering him.
His fangs were out of her flesh in a heartbeat, his tongue laving over the wounds to soothe them as his grip on her loosened.
She sighed and relaxed a little.
He purred like a fucking cub again, the pleasure that ran through him on realising he had satisfied her, his mate, stronger than any physical release, sweeter than anything he had ever experienced.
He kept purring as he licked her wounds, as she relaxed further and he felt her fear ebbing away, her pain fading.
She lifted her left hand, brushed his cheek with her fingers and then traced them over one of the wounds on the back of her neck. He drew back to give her space, a desire that lasted all of a second, obliterated by a need to crush her against his chest when he saw her fingers trembling and felt the flicker of fear ignite inside her again.
“Is it done?” she whispered.
Talon didn’t stop her when she turned to face him, straddling his thighs. No fear touched her blue eyes. They were beautiful and mesmerising as they held his, filled with hope and excitement, and a fucking hell of a lot of love.
He nodded, raised his right hand and swept his knuckles across her cheek before opening his palm and cupping it as he stared into her eyes.
His mate.
“Soon, you’ll be like me,” he husked, thanking the gods for her and her courage, her strength, and humbled by what she had done for him, giving up her life as a mortal to step into his world.
Her lips curved into a slight smile that stole his breath. “A tiger.”
He purred and wrapped his arms around her, held her closer so he could feel her heart beating against his. “My mate. My pride.”
That smile grew a little wider as she looped her arms around his neck and leaned in, bringing her mouth close to his, and melted the heart she now held in her hands with her words.
Two whispered ones against his lips that told him everything she felt, and echoed his own feelings perfectly, showing him just how much they were meant to be.
That meeting her had been his destiny.
“Mine forever.”
The End