CHAPTER 18
It was hard to keep from looking at Maya as she sat on his couch. He had meant it when he had told her that he had missed her. He had lost his fucking mind just one day after they had parted, before he had even made it home, and had gradually been going more and more crazy ever since.
It had really pushed Dalton to his limit.
August had shoved him right past it when he had received word that Byron and Maya were coming to visit.
It had taken a two-hour-long argument for Dalton to convince him that his place was at the pride, waiting there to meet Byron and greet them, as an alpha should. August had only caved when Dalton had promised he would be the one to pick them up at the airport, and he would get them to the village as quickly as possible without compromising their safety.
Still, it had taken over a day.
Gods, he hadn’t slept a wink last night.
He had lain awake thinking of Maya, wondering where Dalton had set up camp and whether she was afraid to be in a strange forest.
One where tigers roamed.
He glanced at her again, fielding a frown from her brother.
There was so much he wanted to talk to her about. He wanted to know everything that had happened while they had been apart. He wanted to know everything about her life up until this point. He wanted to know all of her.
But most importantly, he needed to ask her a question.
One that had him fighting a bout of nerves that threatened to have his leg jiggling as he sat in the armchair, trying to make polite conversation with Byron, when all he wanted to do was be alone with her.
Okay, maybe he wanted to punch Byron first, and then be alone with her.
The bastard deserved it.
He didn’t care how apologetic the male had been after discovering what had happened to Maya and what sort of sick twisted son of a bitch he had given his sister to. Byron deserved to suffer. He deserved to go through the same hell as Maya had.
She glanced at him, a trickle of fear running through the feelings he could sense in her.
He reined in his anger, aware that she could feel it in him.
If being genial to Byron would get him out of his life and hers, then he would suck it up and not slug the bastard.
Gods, he just wanted to be alone with Maya.
The pride had taken his abolition of the tradition regarding mating well, only a few members grumbling about it. All of them from highborn families. Most of the pride had been pleased, happy for him when he had told them he had found his fated one, and that he hoped she would be coming to stay with him, and with them.
His heart had swollen with pride as he had walked her through the village. So many of his kin had come to meet her, offering her warm greetings and smiles, showing their eagerness for her to join the pride.
He hadn’t imagined it going so well.
He hadn’t been prepared for them to welcome Maya like that.
Gods, he was fortunate to be the alpha of such a wonderful pride, one that had survived adversity and come out of it stronger than ever, not only physically, but emotionally. It had strengthened their love, their desire to cherish everything they held dear, and their need to protect one another.
It had given them the strength to stand with him, to speak up and renounce the outdated traditions of their kind, freeing themselves from their bonds and allowing them to be with whoever they desired, to embrace love wherever they found it. Life was too short to live it any other way.
He had leaped that hurdle and now there was only one that stood between him and Maya.
One little question.
Byron curled his lip at August’s home, looking over everything with an air of disdain.
August curled his fingers into fists, and savoured the fantasy of slamming one into the male’s face.
Dalton scowling at him had him straightening his fingers and resting his hands over his knees instead. His friend didn’t have to worry. He wasn’t going to hit the male. As much as he hated him for what he had done, he was Maya’s brother, and his beautiful female was kind, caring and gentle enough that she still loved her brother even after everything he had put her through. So punching Byron’s lights out was a no go, and only because he didn’t want to upset her.
Byron’s amber eyes darkened. “You live in a rather inaccessible place.”
August shrugged. “It works for us. We rarely have any trouble from outsiders up here.”
Just the once, when Archangel had come and slaughtered half the village. It was something they had in common. Both of their prides wanted the hunter organisation to pay for what it had done.
“I did have you winched up rather than making you climb the cliff,” he said.
Byron glared at him again. “I could have scaled it.”
August doubted that, but didn’t call the male on it.
He sipped the drink Dalton had made, enjoying the burn as it went down. Maya toyed with her own mug, turning it back and forth in her hands. Hands he wanted to feel on him.
Her amber gaze slid to him, her pupils dilating as their eyes met.
Fuck, it was hard to concentrate when she was throwing off signals he could read loud and clear, could feel in her. She wanted him. She wanted to be alone with him as fiercely as he did, wanted to pick up where they had left off in that booth back in Underworld.
His left leg jiggled. He put his hand on it and shoved down, stopping it from moving.
“Where’s Grey? I figured he would come with you,” he said and she lifted her head higher and pinned him with bright gold eyes that only increased the need to sweep her up in his arms and take her somewhere private.
“Our brother is away,” Byron said for her. “On business.”
Something about the way Byron said that with a sharp bite in his tone, and the worried look Maya cast at her brother, warned August that he was lying, and neither of them knew where Grey was.
Maybe he was taking a break from the pride.
Talon had told him about Grey, about how their parents had assigned him to protect Maya and Byron rarely allowed him to leave the pride because she was always there.
August couldn’t blame the male if he had decided to take an extended vacation from the pride to enjoy his newfound freedom.
“It’s getting late,” he started.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did for Maya,” Byron interjected, his amber eyes dark beneath the black slashes of his eyebrows. “If I had known what Pyotr was up to, I wouldn’t have allowed Maya to go there.”
He wanted to mention that he hadn’t exactly allowed Maya to go anywhere. He had ordered her to go to Pyotr, had sent her there like some damned present, a gift he could do as he pleased with.
Maya shot him a worried look, and it was enough to have him holding his tongue again and keeping the peace between him and her brother.
She was with him now, and if everything went to plan, she would stay at his side forever.
“It would be good if you were to stay a night or two, because I have a celebration planned.” He weathered the grim look Byron gave him.
“I hardly came all this way for one night.”
“Byron,” Maya snapped, her dark eyebrows pinching in a frown.
He drew a deep breath and sighed as he looked at her. “I said I wasn’t leaving until I’m sure it’s safe for you and I meant it.”
Safe for her?
August glared at the bastard.
The tether on his temper frayed and his control frayed with it.
“I don’t need to prove myself to you… I only have to prove myself to her… she’s a grown female. She can make her own decisions.” He stood sharply, anger burning hot in his veins, stoked by what Byron clearly thought about him. The black-haired male countered him, rising to his feet and coming to face him, his expression hard. Unapologetic. August growled at him. “I’m not going to hurt Maya. She’s safe here, with me. I would never let anything happen to her. I fucking love her.”
Byron stared at him.
Maya did too.
August looked down at her, heart pounding, nerves rising swiftly to engulf him. Not quite the way he had wanted to tell her.
“Let’s get you settled for your stay.” Dalton snatched Byron’s arm and tugged him towards the door.
The male tiger stared at August, shock written across his face that matched what he could feel in Maya, until Dalton cleared the steps and disappeared into the night with him.
Maya continued to stare at him, her wide amber eyes as bright as her orange woollen jumper in the light from the fire.
Cold air swept in behind him, stirring her black hair.
“It’s beautiful up here at night. I could show you,” he blurted, saying the first thing that came to him because he needed to say something.
Anything.
She nodded.
He gathered her coat and helped her into it when she stood, and put his own jacket on as he followed her to the door and down the steps.
She waited for him at the bottom.
He hesitated only a second before taking her hand and leading her towards the broad area at the edge of the plateau to his left, where the fire blazed brightly in the darkness. A gathering place in the village that would be full of noise tomorrow night if everything worked out.
Her steps slowed as they passed the fire and left the halo of light it provided, and she looked up, her eyes taking in the night sky that stretched above them.
Gods, she was beautiful.
“I’ve never seen so many stars,” she whispered and glanced at him.
“It’s like this all the time up here.” He looked up at the striking band of the Milky Way above them, glittering with a million stars, but it couldn’t hold his attention as it normally did.
His eyes dropped back to Maya.
“You might have gone a little over the top with the clothing,” he said with a smile as he took in the sight of her swamped in the thick coat and jumper, and her waterproof trousers. It looked as if she had more layers underneath them, and he swore she had been wearing a pair of thinner insulating gloves beneath her waterproof ones earlier.
She smiled back at him, her eyes bright as the firelight caught them. “I was a bit hot by the fire.”
“I feel a bit hot now,” he husked and looked her over, loving the way she blushed. Maybe he hadn’t screwed things up with his blurted confession after all. “What I said—”
“I love you too.”
His heart kicked hard in his chest.
He stared at her.
Unsure what to say.
She fidgeted with the zipper on her jacket, glanced at her boots, and then turned to face him and tipped her chin up, all of her nerves gone, replaced by a fiercely determined look.
“You mentioned a celebration… what is it you’re celebrating?”
She could have picked a better topic if she had wanted to make small talk to ease both of their nerves.
His shot into overdrive.
“It’s still in the works.” He struggled not to trip over the words as he fought for the courage to say the things he had been practicing in his head all day. “There’s one little detail I need to work out first.”
Her black eyebrows rose. “What is it?”
He tamped down another sickening wave of nerves and took a step towards her, closing the distance between them.
She was so damn beautiful, stole his breath just as she had stolen his heart, and all he could think about was her.
Gods, he had spent the past century intent on never being tied to just one female, focused on never settling down and forever playing the field, foolishly thinking that was what he wanted.
Now, he knew what he truly wanted.
He wanted one female.
Maya.
“I need to ask you something… and it doesn’t have to be now… I don’t want you to feel I’m forcing you into anything, because I would never do that… so whenever you’re ready, then I’ll be ready too, and—”
She stepped into him, hooked her hand around the back of his neck, lured his head down to hers, and breathed against his lips.
“Just ask me already.”
He smiled at the way she said that, determined and forceful, a female who knew what she wanted and he had the feeling what she wanted was him.
As her mate.
And she would stop at nothing to make that happen.
“Be my forever?” he whispered, blood thundering in his ears, all hope pinned on her as he waited with bated breath to hear her answer.
She brought her lips up to his.
“Gods, I thought you’d never ask.”
She kissed him before he could say something about her tone and tease her back, obliterating his ability to think straight. He swept her up in his arms, his heart singing, soul rejoicing as he held her in them and kissed her, as her words rang around his head, her sweet voice laced with desperation and relief, telling him that she wanted this too.
She wanted to be his mate.
He twisted her into his arms, looping one beneath her bent knees and one around her back, and kissed her as he carried her towards his cabin.
Towards their home.
Before he could reach it, she moved in his arms, breaking free of his hold, and his growl died on his lips when she pressed her chest to his, looped her arms around his neck, and wrapped her legs around his waist, and seized control of the kiss.
As he mounted the steps of their home, his thoughts drifted back to that day in the gym at Underworld, when he had tried to make her submit to him.
He might have pinned her then, but in the end, she had been the victor.
She had stolen his heart as her prize.
Claimed it forever as her own.
She dropped from his arms as they entered the house, closed the door behind him and pressed him back against it, her kiss fierce and commanding, bending him to her will.
He surrendered to her.
Always would.
Because she was his whole world, everything he truly wanted and all that he needed.
His beautiful fated one.
“I love you, August,” she murmured against his lips between kisses.
He gathered her into his arms and she didn’t resist him this time when he lifted her, carrying her towards the stairs.
“I love you too, Maya.” He held her gaze, needing her to see he meant every word, and how much she meant to him.
Tonight, he was going to show her how much he loved her, how much he needed her, and that they were meant to be.
Tomorrow, they would celebrate the start of their forever.
A snow leopard alpha and his beautiful impossible mate.
The tiger who had tamed him.
The End