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Parish answered on the first ring

"You have the to be pleased hat he had to say

"I tracked them to a home just one block north of the schoolhouse in Melton They&039;d taken off but there&039;s a good chance they&039;ll return If not, Talon should be able to follow their trail" Bayon winced at Parish&039;s brutal repri stayed on the hunt for the intruders "I have a lead I want to investigate It&039;s important" There was another furious chastisement that included Parish&039;s opinion of idiots who couldn&039;t follow orders and the threat of Bayon&039;sremoved by a rusty knife "Trust me, mon ami, you&039;ll be the first to knohen I have info I can share Oh, and tell Talon that in the attic of the house he&039;ll find a metal collar I think it has some sort of toxin on it so he&039;ll have to be careful, but he needs to bring it back for the Healers to study It ht be important I&039;ll be in touch as soon as I can," he pro it back into his pocket

Parish was furious, but he wouldn&039;t hesitate to send Talon back to the house

Which meant that Bayon had a few hours at least to concentrate solely on helping Keira A duty that ht

Keira had always belonged to him

Even if she&039;d been too damned stubborn to admit it

Keira wasn&039;t surprised that she drea on to what little reible she could actually feel the sun slanting over her slu her pelt with a delicious heat, or hear the sound of splashing water playing like a sy to the dream She didn&039;t want to wake to find herself in the cramped attic with the collar wrapped around her neck and the stench of the nearby hu that felt like a rock digging into her ass, and a strange heat pressed against her back

Slowly she forced open her eyes, tensing as she realized she wasn&039;t in the cage This wasa cave

But not just any cave Her favorite cave

And she was ht

Which ht, she was shifting back to huolden pu directly behind her

Bayon

The na to clear as she breathed in his warm, musky scent

Home Dear lord She was home

Distantly she are that she was co forced into a shift, and that there were still large holes in her memories But suddenly she was consumed with the need to prove this was more than a dream

That she was really, truly saved

"Bayon," she h his soft pelt

He was a e, ly attracted to hih to join the Hunters No shocker

Bayon started breaking feeous, brash and too daood

And as far as Keira was concerned, he&039;d also been firmly off-li for her

All s, or rather horncats, once they hit puberty, and Bayon was no different When he wasn&039;t training or on duty his only thought was getting laid Keira hadn&039;t had any interest in being another notch in his bed

Not when she&039;d had far more mature lovers who could ease her needs

The sort of lovers who understood her position as the leader of the Hunters, and never crossed her barriers

Bayon wouldn&039;t have recognized a boundary if it bit him on the ass

But a part of her had always known that was an excuse to shut down his persistent pursuit of her

Deep inside she&039;d been a coward

In hindsight it was easy to see

Bayon was too bossy, too de, to be a co to maintain her alpha status, it&039;d been easier to sla to forainst Bayon&039;s natural tendency to doive a shit about complications or politics or any other stupid reason she shouldn&039;t give into her needs

Her cat had been without touch far too long, and her feers

On cue, Bayon lifted his head, his eyeswith a genuine pleasure as he shifted in a flurry of ic

Keira shivered beneath a blast of lust as the cat was replaced with a large, delectable male dressed only in a pair of faded jeans Oh, shit His chest was even broader than it had been, and tattooed with tribal s that flowed down the side of his lean waist

He&039;d hardened over the years

Matured into the lethal warrior she&039;d sensed fro But there was still a twinkle of the boyish charrowled low in her throat as she kneeled directly in front of hiold of his shoulder length hair

"Welcome home, honey," he

on pure instinct, Keira leaned forward to kiss the lips that she&039;d fantasized about in the privacy of her bed Instant, ood Male spice and pure power

She s she hadn&039;t felt for years sparked to life Her fingers tightened in his hair as his lips parted in ready response, a tantalizingthe air with the scent of his arousal

"Christ, I ainst her lips

Her desire flooded through her, the need to be close to this man so intense it was painful

"Touchher back so she could press the tips of her aching breasts against his chest

A moan renched from his

throat, but even as his hands cupped her hips, he was lifting his head to study her with a wary expression

"Keira?"

With a shove, she had hi his hips, she allowed her hands to explore the smooth terrain of his chest

"I need to feel your touch," she said in husky tones, her breath hissing through her clenched teeth as he spanned her waist, before his fingers skimmed up her sides to cup the smallforward to spread a path of kisses over the silken heat of his skin, pausing long enough to lick a flat nipple

"More"

He shuddered, his erection thickening to press against the zipper of his jeans

Deliberately Keira ground herself against his bulge, her pussy groet She needed that hard cock deep inside her

Now

His slender fingers teased her nipples with exquisite expertise, his touch sending shockwaves of pleasure through her shivering body She released a shaky breath, craving hiic

There was a flash of heated gold in his eyes as his cat responded to her touch, but even as a purr of approval ruh her chest, Bayon tensed beneath her

"Wait, Keira," he growled

She nipped his collarbone, hard enough to draw blood "No, don&039;t stop" With atheir positions until she was on her back and he was perched on top of her

Keira ood to have his weight pressing against her tres were spread to allow his lower body to rest between the near her precise point of pleasure

Bayon scowled "What&039;s going on?" Her gaze dropped to adquestion in his eyes

She didn&039;t want to think She wanted to feel

"You&039;re the laston," she said, refusing to dwell on the number of feht was far more painful than it should be Then she stiffened, struck by a horrifying fear "Unless you&039;re mated?"

His scowl deepened "Christ, no" Sheer relief had her reaching up to fra his head doard

"Then kiss me"

He made a sound deep in his throat as he allowed his er that deive

So long as it was on her terainst her clit, she bit the tongue he shoved into herit with a rhyth in sheeran ales and planes He wasn&039;t pretty He was toobeauty that enthralled her

Taking her time, Keira memorized the prominent line of his cheekbone and the sensuous curve of his lips During the brutal years she&039;d been held captive, she&039;d discovered that she had no regrets for the things she&039;d done, but she had plenty of regrets for the things she hadn&039;t done

Things like this

She stroked the line of his stubborn jaw, relishing the rough stubble of his beard as she rubbed herself against the delicious hardness of his erection

Bayon growled, then with a last thrust of his tongue he wrenched his lips free to bury his face in the curve of her neck

He bit into her flesh with enough pressure to send white-hot lust jolting through her

She hissed in pleasure Yesoh yes

She needed this

Running her hands down the

irabbed the waistband of his jeans, i them down

"Off," she roan, he arched back to stare down at her flushed face

"Keira"

Her hands ski with the snap "What?"

"Stop"

She frowned, wrapping her fingers around the ainst his zipper

"Why?"

His pained groan echoed through the cave "Because twelve hours ago you didn&039;t even re an interest in the nearby waterfall "I wasconfused"

She could feel the heat of his gaze searing over her profile "And now you&039;re not?"

"I knohat I need"

"And what&039;s that?"

She reluctantly turned back to aze "I need to know you&039;re real," she breathed "That I&039;ret, then before Keira could guess his intent, he was seated on the ground with her tre body cradled in his lap "I have you," he mur his cheek to the top of her head

"And I&039;ain" She should have been pissed This was supposed to be a hot, sweaty bout of sex that would ease the hunger she&039;d had for this male for years and prove once and for all that she was out of the dae that she was able to do exactly what she wanted

But as swiftly as her desire had exploded, it altered to a different, but just as savage need

Co up and down her bare back The war beneath her ear

She snuggled against hiic of the land seep inside her

It should have added to her coe done to her hu second it was repairing the das, if there wasn&039;t so her out

So she wasn&039;t prepared to deal with Not yet

"No one knows I&039; his face in her hair He was such a cat

"But you realize they&039;re going to skin me when they find out I didn&039;t tell therimaced It wasn&039;t fair to force Bayon to choose between protecting her and his loyalty to fellow Hunters, but the suffocating dread that enveloped her didn&039;t give a shit And for now she wasn&039;t strong enough to battle through it

"I&039;m not ready," she muttered

Thankfully Bayon didn&039;t press, perhaps sensing she was still dangerously fragile "Can you tell me how you disappeared?" he instead deh the e patchwork of perfect clarity and murky confusion

Now that she was ho in this cave with Parish And the day she&039;d taken co Bayon when he was too occupied to notice her fascinated survey

But the second she tried to

concentrate on the events leading up to her kidnapping, her brain began to sputter and shut down Like a coht with frustration

His hand continued to run a soothing path up and down her spine "We thought you were dead" He was forced to halt and clear his throat as he relived the day of her disappearance "Parish could sense you were being attacked, then suddenly his connection to you was severed He searched for you for months, but his cat was convinced you were dead"

She hissed with dark fury, knowing her death would have torh for Parish toNo, he would&039;vefailed her

Damn, but she wanted to make those bastards pay for what they&039;d done

"I think they had soic that blocked my connection to my cat," she said

"That&039;s what Raphael said when he was ambushed"

Keira tilted back her head in surprise

"Raphael was attacked?"

"Yeah, just outside the borders" Bayon&039;s expression was guarded, as if he were hiding so from her "He was shot with a dart by a human as tattooed with a raven in front of a full h her head as a shard of h the black hole that surrounded her kidnapping

"The Mark of Shakpi," she breathed, squeezing shut her eyes as a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her