Impulse (28 page)

“I still intend to claim you, Little Raven.” He cupped the back of my neck with a gentle touch and planted his insistent lips on my mouth. A current raced through my hands for a moment and dissipated. I touched the fresh stubble on his face—soft and coarse all at the same time. My kiss wandered down and I nipped his chin with my teeth. I liked doing that because it provoked him to growl. Logan traced his fingers over the soft flesh of my neck and I gasped, trying to catch my breath. He was usually so firm with his hands and feeling them barely touch my skin made me want him so much more.

“Expose him, Logan. If that’s what it takes to break his claim, then do it. But don’t use me for your own personal revenge.”

His eyes sought understanding as they fell over me adoringly. Very tall people were slowing their pace and dropping stares as our bodies twined and his long arms snaked around my waist. I wasn’t a Chitah, and that made it controversial.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked apprehensively.

A brilliant pattern erupted across his warm skin. It was striking and more pronounced than I’d ever seen it before. We were drawing a crowd in front of the entrance and they circled us with curiosity drawn on their faces.

“People are looking at us, Logan.”

A breeze lifted a tendril of my hair and it floated in front of my face. He captured it and held it between his fingers, admiring the black mixed with chocolate undertones. “It’s time for me to come clean about something I should have told you a long time ago.”

The butterflies in my stomach were lining up on the tarmac, preparing for takeoff.

“Do you want to know the truth of why I didn’t give you over to Nero when I came for you that night?”

“Because he questioned your word as a Chitah, and you’re a prideful, stubborn man, Mr. Cross.”

My smile waned when his voice deepened. “No. That’s what I led you to believe.”

Logan shifted his stance and suddenly I felt swallowed up by his height and presence.

“When I stood outside of your door in my raincoat, I had every intention of delivering you and holding to my agreement with Nero. I could smell your fear and uncertainty, which would have made it easy to force you to comply. I should have taken you immediately, but I extended the visit for a reason. Do you know why?”

Spectators circled around us, but I was oblivious. Was this public display part of his plan? I watched him with skeptical eyes as he loomed over me. His expression was unreadable and I was so rattled by his gradual admission that I tried to push him away.

“Ask me why.” His grip tightened around my waist, fingers digging into my jeans. “It’s time that you learn the truth about me.”

“Is this part of the show?” I whispered.

”Well, well. So generous of you to have delivered my girl. I’ve been missing every inch of her,” Tarek shouted exuberantly.

Logan’s arm hooked around my waist and he forced me behind him. It was unnecessary since a physical confrontation at the Gathering was forbidden.

Tarek strutted down the sidewalk with a round, pink bubble pressed to his lips. He snapped the gum and winked at me with his cutting eyes. The crowd parted, allowing him to enter the circle. He was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with a symbol on the front I didn’t recognize.

“Bring the elders!” Logan demanded.

A few men hustled off and speculative glances surrounded us.

“You think the elders are going to help you?” Tarek reached in his pocket and unwrapped another piece of gum, tossing the paper on the pavement. He raked Logan over with arrogant superiority and when he saw me, he punched out his tongue seductively and blew another bubble. Logan’s body stretched into hard muscle beneath his black shirt.

“Logan Cross, is this where you intend to hold your challenge?” Tarek asked, spreading out his arms dramatically. “Always had to be a showman.”

“I am not challenging you,” Logan replied indifferently. That caught Tarek by surprise and he studied Logan with extreme measure.

Murmurs increased behind us and three older men approached. They were seasoned with peppered hair and weathered faces. These men were old enough to have witnessed the rise of the great pyramids. It took hundreds of years for a Chitah to age five years once they reached adulthood, so I could only imagine how ancient these men were. They lined up on our right and both Tarek and Logan faced them, bowing respectively.

The bearded one spoke first. “I thought we settled this matter.”

Logan submissively lowered his eyes. “Respectfully, I ask for a moment of your time.”

My arms involuntarily wrapped around his waist—something I didn’t notice until he placed his hand over mine. Here I was—a Mage—surrounded by men I knew to be my natural enemy.

Tarek stalked forward. “He has nothing for you—nothing but lies. I have claim on this female and he’s infringing upon my rights—
my
territory. We’ll be leaving.”

One more step and Logan might have lunged, but an elder raised his hand. “We will allow him to speak his piece so that we may return to the ceremonies. Tarek, you are silenced.”

Tarek folded his heavy arms and angrily slid his jaw back and forth.

“With all due respect,” Logan began, “you’ve made an error in your decision. Tarek holds no claim to this female because he has already met his kindred spirit.” Eyes widened among the elders as they darted between Tarek and Logan. “Years ago—while it was not done officially—Tarek privately claimed a female as his kindred spirit. Her name was Katrina, and she denied his claim and chose me.”

I held my breath. Pieces of his past were fitting together in a most dramatic turn of events. His woman was pregnant and murdered by a Mage—the reason Logan went on a homicidal rampage—but I never knew the full story because the subject matter was too delicate. It broke him once, and there was no need to test those breaks again. But she was Tarek’s intended?

The next part he all but roared out. “And he forced himself on her once she was mine!”

I let go of him and stepped back. His voice ripped through the night and tore open a hole, deep and wide, opening a river of pain and silence as the elders twitched their noses and picked up the scent of truth.

“As you remember, Seth, Katrina was murdered. Tarek’s motive tonight is personal and I beseech you to revoke his courtship rights.”

“Can I speak now?” Tarek asked, spitting out his gum. “Is the word of a male with a soiled reputation all that is needed to deny me what is rightfully mine to pursue? While Cross may be of a high-ranking family, it’s no secret to anyone here what kind of work he does.”

“Did,” I corrected.

“Silver is
not
yours,” Logan growled in a low, threatening voice. It lifted every hair on my arms and sent a chill down my spine. He was one of the most intimidating men I’d ever met, and the ferocity in his tone made one of the elders flinch.

“She will be,” Tarek spoke in a soft and self-assured voice.

“Not if I challenge you.”

I squeezed Logan’s arm as a reminder.

“So go on then, Logan Cross. Challenge me. Or are you weak and afraid?”

“Afraid like you were with claiming Katrina?” Logan lifted his chin proudly. “You had your opportunity, but you were ashamed to let anyone know she was your intended.
Ashamed
because she did not come from wealth or status,
ashamed
because she was not good enough for you.”

“That’s a lie!” he bellowed.

“Go tell it to her gravestone,” Logan hissed.

Tarek pointed an angry finger and stalked forward. “She was mine, and you stole her from me. You were jealous of my position and family and couldn’t stand to see me have it all, so you had to steal my life mate? What nobility!”

Tarek stumbled over his lies and the moment he realized it, he backed down.

One of the elders thoughtfully stroked his chin and addressed Tarek. “You’re admission is enough; there’s no need to recant as we can scent the truth in your words. Your legal rights to court this Mage as a kindred spirit are severed. If that is all—”

“One more thing,” Logan said, circling around to face me.

He pulled me against him and my face pressed against his firm chest. Confused, I was trying to push away when suddenly Logan’s unique and robust scent filled my head and swarmed through my body like an intimate act. It was heady and intoxicating—different from any other time I’d experienced it. The power was concentrated, and the effect was immediate.

“Logan, what are you doing?”

The crowd murmured and slanted eyes placed their judgment upon us.

He lowered his head and spoke softly against my forehead. “What I should have done a long time ago.” His eyes blazed when he looked up to the elders and declared, “I am claiming this female for the right to courtship. No other male will court her without a challenge, or unless she makes a decision.”

“Logan, you already did this with me.”

“Not officially,” he said softly.

Logan spoke loud enough that everyone heard him, but soft enough that his words were mine.
“I’m Logan Cross of the Cross family, and I
claim
you, Silver, in front of my elders and these witnesses. I will prove myself a worthy male and avow to honor your good name and protect you with my life. I do this, Little Raven, not because I’m possessed by you, but there is something that I’ve kept from you for a long time.”

Still in his arms, I lifted my head to look in his eyes when his smile faded.

“What I’ve concealed from you has lit a fire in me and at the same time, it rips me apart. From the moment I set eyes on you, I knew you were mine. Ask me why.”

I shook my head.

“
Ask me
,” he insisted, tilting his head to the side.

“Why?” I whispered.

Logan dropped to his knee and in a silly moment, I thought he was going to propose. In front of an audience, he rolled up my shirt with his fingers and nuzzled his warm cheek against my stomach, spreading his large hands around my hips. Soft kisses pressed against my stomach before he lifted his eyes and drew me into his gaze.

“Because
you
are my kindred spirit, Mage. I have waited a lifetime to set eyes on you and the connection I feel is undeniable. There’s more to it than chemistry because over time you’ve opened yourself up and allowed me to see that I’m a fortunate man. I was asleep—dreamwalking through my own life until I met you. My heart has reawakened.”

“You said yourself that it can only be with a Chitah. Don’t mess with my head, Logan.”

My legs felt like jelly and my blood didn’t bother to ask for directions on how to get to my hands. I barely heard the shocked voices around us because Logan became the center of my universe. I gripped the short mane of hair tied behind his neck and felt the resonant purr thrumming from his chest. How do you quell passion when it rages like a fire? I wanted to sink into his lap and kiss him for hours, but part of that may have been the drugging effect his scent had on me.

“Well, doesn’t that just warm the cockles of my heart,” Tarek chided. “Elders, that scrappy female he clings to is a Mage. Cross cannot find a life mate in her as a kindred, for she is
not
a Chitah,” he said with emphasis.

“That did not seem to stop
you
from claiming her, Tarek,” the bearded man pointed out.

Logan rose to his feet and faced the elders. “You know there is no denying your intended, and for whatever reason, she has been brought to me in this form. I can’t explain it, nor can I disregard it. I’m humbly asking for your acknowledgement of this courtship.”

“This is a most unusual turn of events,” Seth muttered.

Eyes washed over us with disgust. The women looked like they wanted to drag me down a hill and beat me with dead skunks. In their eyes, I was stealing one of their own. A Mage couldn’t have children and this only added insult to injury among a Breed who thrived on continuing their line with large families.

“For your sake, young Chitah, I hope that this is not trickery. Kindred spirits only exist among the Chitah race.” There was a pause as the elders looked between one another. “We will allow the tradition of the kindred courtship under the condition that we speak with you privately at a later time. Otherwise, a
mating
between a Chitah and Mage will not be acknowledged by our laws, so don’t get any ideas in your head.”

Logan nodded. “Agreed. May I request a favor? That Tarek and his companions are detained until we’re off the property. I don’t trust that he won’t attempt to retaliate, and I want to get this female home safely to her Ghuardian.”

Several men stepped out of the crowd and surrounded Tarek, escorting him to the other side of the property as the elders turned away. The crowd dispersed and a gust of wind blew from the north, sending a few leaves tumbling down the street.

Still reeling in shock, I shoved Logan in the chest. “How could you do that to me? This isn’t a game where you can toy with my emotions in order to get back at your enemy.”

I couldn’t contain the tears that burned my eyes and clung to my lashes. I covered my face with my trembling hands, lost to the possibility that Logan had manipulated a situation so that he could get what he wanted. Lost to…