When Ethan awoke, a sense of happiness and wellbeing filled him even before he remembered where he was and what had happened. He drew in a deep breath, and it neither hurt nor left him feeling suffocated. He was neither burning up nor freezing, but pleasantly warm. His head didn’t hurt any more. Best of all, his heart wasn’t filled with loneliness and the bitter knowledge that what he wanted most, he could never have.

He reached out a hand, and felt Destiny’s fingers curl around his.

“Ethan?” she said softly. “You awake?”

He opened his eyes. She was perched on the bed beside him. A shaft of morning sun fell across her face, catching the golden undertones of her skin. Her warm brown eyes were brimming with the same love for him that he felt for her.

Our mate, his tiger purred.

That new inner voice should have felt strange, but it didn’t. Ethan could feel that his tiger was a part of him. He’d never denied the fiercer parts of his self, so having the wildest and most primal aspect of himself given a voice of its own felt natural. And calling Destiny his mate was only putting a name to what Ethan had always known.

He couldn’t believe that they’d known each other for so long and spent so much time together without giving in to their feelings. To their desire. It burned in him like a wildfire, fierce and hot and unstoppable. And when he looked into her eyes, he saw that it burned in her too. How the hell had they both managed to control themselves for two years?

“You are the most stubborn woman on the face of the Earth,” he said.

“Gee, you really know how to give a girl a compliment,” she teased. “And same to you. Well, not the most stubborn woman…”

He sat up, laughing, ready to make some terrible joke about proving his maleness. She was laughing too. But the laughter faded as he put his hands on her shoulders. At that simple touch, the raw sexual heat that had always smoldered within them, banked and repressed and fought with all their might, burst into flames.

He’d meant to take his time and savor the moment. He savored the moment, all right, but the instant he touched her, he knew that neither of them were in the mood for any slow careful lovemaking. It was love, yes, but love like a fever, love like a fire, a love that was wild and fierce and never again to be denied.

He kissed her with the ferocity of two endless years of pent-up passion. She returned it with equal urgency, nipping at his lips as he nipped at hers. Her scent surrounded him, filling his senses and driving him wild. He pulled at her clothes, impatient to touch every inch of her smooth warm skin, to mark it with his own skin, his own scent, to claim her and make her his own.

But her strong soft hands were already inside his pants, stroking his thighs, on his rock-hard erection. His urgent need threatened to flare out of control, and he heard himself growl.

With a teasing purr, she stopped her explorations just long enough to allow him to strip her. He feasted his eyes on her delectably feminine curves, her irresistible scent. All of her.

“My Destiny,” he growled. “Mine.”

“Ethan,” she gasped. “Ethan, oh, Ethan, finally—!”

He pulled her out of her chair and laid her down on the bed. And then he let himself feast for real, tasting her, savoring her, teasing her sensitive nipples and feeling them harden to nubs under his tongue. Her nails dug into his shoulders as he went lower, but the tiny pain only sharpened his pleasure. She responded to his smallest touch, moaning and writhing, losing control. He loved seeing, hearing, feeling her desire. Destiny wanted him, needed him, just as much as he needed her.

He licked at her inner thighs, and she instinctively opened herself to him, inviting him to taste her tangy sweetness. He did. Her clit was like a little pearl under his tongue, and he felt it swell and throb as he made her climax.

Then he could hold himself back no more. And she was ready for more, a woman to match his own desperate desire. Even as he raised himself over her, she was pulling him in to her. They came together as if they were made for each other. And, he realized, that was because they were.

“Now!” she called out. “Come on, Ethan, now, now, now!”

He filled her with a single thrust, sliding into her ready wet heat. Destiny looked into his eyes, making it a moment of intimacy and connection as much as physical pleasure. She met his passion with passion, his desire with desire, his love with love. It was everything he had ever wanted. She was everything he’d ever wanted.

“I love you,” he gasped. “My mate!”

She cried out his name as she reached her second climax. He had never heard anything so sensual as his name on her lips, or seen anything so beautiful as her widened eyes. As his own ecstasy engulfed him, he held her close, glorying in the shared joy that had come to them at last.

Afterward, they held each other tenderly. Every curve of her body fit into every angle of his, like puzzle pieces.

Ethan would have loved to stay entwined with her for hours, if not days, but they had a much-delayed mission to go on. And if he was strong enough to make love, he was strong enough to carry it out.

Reluctantly, he sat up. “How long was I out? I mean before.”

She snickered. “I know what you meant.” Then, seriously, she said, “Just about twenty-four hours.”

Destiny cut off his exclamation of dismay with a shake of her head. “You needed it, Ethan. Shifters heal fast, but not instantaneously. Did you want me to wake you up earlier, so you could jump out of bed, tear off to the base, and collapse halfway there?”

He couldn’t argue with that. “When we get back to the US, we’ll stay in bed all day. All weekend, even.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

They shared one more passionate kiss, and he swung his legs over the side of the bed and cautiously stood up. A brief moment of dizziness washed over him, then faded. As he got dressed, he took inventory of his physical self. His side ached a little, and he could feel that he wasn’t quite up to his usual strength. But he was almost there. If he didn’t push too hard getting to the base, he should be fine by the time he arrived.

Destiny handed him his sword and tiger claws. “Here you go.”

“I thought I’d lost the sword.”

“I went back to the tower and retrieved it. Mine too. And my tiger claws.” Destiny patted her belt. “And I killed a deer for dinner. My tiger was beyond thrilled.”

“We’ve got venison?” Ethan asked hopefully. “Or did you mean you ate it as a tiger?”

“Both. My tiger had some, then I cooked some for me and you.” Quickly, she added, “Not from the part my tiger had chewed on!”

“Mudpuppy, I’m so hungry I wouldn’t even care.”

He accompanied her to the kitchen, where she retrieved some venison steaks she’d grilled over the fire, sliced up, and packed in a sort of lunch box of hammered bronze. Ethan’s stomach growled as she offered it to him.

“It’s not Aunt Lizzie’s barbecue, but…”

He was too busy eating the juicy, savory meat to reply. Once his mouth wasn’t full, he said, “You’d give Aunt Lizzie a run for her money.”

Still eating, they walked out together. As they passed the fallen tower, Destiny said, “I know it wasn’t our fault, but I feel bad about that.”

“Killing the T-Rex?” Ethan asked.

“No, knocking down the tower. It’s a historical monument. Or it should be, anyway.”

“It still could be. I mean, the whole city. We could contact some Indian archaeologists…” Ethan noticed the huge claw and tail-tip poking out from the heap of marble. “…or not. I don’t know if finding a fresh T-Rex could lead to shifters in general getting discovered, but maybe it’s better not to take any chances.”

Destiny contemplated the claw. “Yeah, I don’t think we want anyone finding any dinosaurs. But Mataji knows a lot of shifters in India. I bet if I tipped her off, she could arrange for a team of shifters to come dispose of the dinosaurs, then have someone ‘discover’ the city. Bingo! Historical monument!”

“How do you dispose of a T-Rex?”

She grinned. “I think I’ll let that one be someone else’s problem.”

When they reached the gates of the city and saw the jungle beyond, Destiny stopped. “We’d make better time as tigers. Want to take a walk on the wild side, jarhead?”

Yes, purred his tiger. We will run and track and hunt with our mate.

Ethan watched with enjoyment and barely restrained desire as she undressed and put her clothes and weapons in the backpack. He had to turn his back on her before he undressed himself. If they were both naked at the same time and watching each other, he’d either be unable to restrain himself, or she would, or they’d both lose their minds.

He packed up his clothes and weapons, then reached inside himself to find his tiger. Ethan imagined being bigger, furrier, hunting by scent and on four huge paws…

…and the world seemed to shift focus. He was on all fours, in a new body that felt lithe and strong and fierce. He could no longer see in color, but all sorts of fascinating and distinct scents surrounded him. Ethan turned to see Destiny’s tiger watching him with brilliant eyes. He tried to smile at her, and found himself making a huffing noise instead. They padded up to each other, sniffing and nuzzling, then, for a brief wild moment, playfully nipping and rolling over together on the ground.

Then he picked up the backpack in his powerful jaws and they set off at a brisk lope. Their tigers had evolved to travel in this exact sort of terrain, and moved between the trees with far more ease than they could as humans, despite being far bigger. And it was a special kind of joy to run through the jungle with his mate beside him, tracking the acrid lizard smell of the Achillo-whatevers and the human scent of their controller back to the base.

We hunt, purred his tiger with satisfaction. This is what we were always meant for.

His mate hunted by his side. Ethan felt light as a feather, in body and heart and soul. The miles fell away behind them.