Prince of Cats (15 page)

Amon! 
“Will the Priest know if we do not?”

Bray chuckled, “Yes.  He too is a Cat.  You see when a Cat has mated his scent will forever mark his
territory.  Every Cat will know
if we do not, and every Cat will know when we do
.”

Neomee shuddered at Bray’s unveiled statement, ‘
if
we do not and
when
we do’.
  He’d made it clear that th
ere was little choice for her.  She gritted her teeth.
  Mark his territory
!
 
Territory
?
  Is that what he thinks of me?
  Annoyed,
she
began scrubbing her legs, “Then what?  Do I live her
e
with you happily ever after?  Do I go back to the slave quarters?  Do you even want to do this for me?”

“Do this for you?”  Bray
’s
puzzled look infuriated
her
.

“You saved my life in the
catacomb
s, I presume out of guilt
because well let’s be honest, it was your fault
I was caught
.  Then you forced the Priest to spare my life by telling him that we were bound.  Another favor.  So if you don’t want to mark me, I understand.
  I probably wouldn’t be willing to go that far for a slave either.
”

A low warning growl emitted from him
as he turned and paced the room. 
An angry
hand
plowed through
his hair as he turne
d to glare down at
her
, “It
was my fault?  Favors?  Mark you?  What is wrong with you, you can’t truly be this simple.” 

Now it was Neomee’s turn to glare as she stood in the bath and faced Bray, “It
was
your fault.  If you would have let me be as I asked you to…
begged
you to,
I’d be half way to
Karnak right now
!
”

“You’d be dead!” Bray barked, “If I hadn’t caught you another Cat would have and he wouldn’t have wasted a second severing your pretty little head from your
pretty little
body.  This is of course after he’d put you on display for the rest of
the Cats
or
mounted your right there in the catacombs
.
  And as for favors, I do favors for
no one
.”

Neomee turned her back
on him
as she glared out the window.  She didn’t see the pain cross his face as he eyed her back, “Then why?  Why would you spare my life in the tunnels and why lie to the Priest?”
  Neomee shook her head and added in a whisper, “I don’t know what you want.”

“
Because i
t wasn’t a lie,”
Bray growled
.

Neomee turned to stare at
him
in disbelief, mouth agape.

“Make no mistake about it my
lily
, we are bound and
you
will
be my
mate.”

Her
hand went to the collar at her throat
as she bit out angrily
, “You mean
I
. 
I
have been bound.  I see no shackles on you!”

He
closed the dista
nce between them
as he glared down at
her,
“
It is
not
a shack
le.  I
t is a sign for all to see that you belong to a Cat and
are
never
to
be touched.  I
t will keep you safe when I can
not.”

Neomee tried to rip the collar from her neck, but it
did not budge, “Yeah, I get it.  T
erritory.”

“Not territory
and not
yet
marked
either
!  We are bound and we
will
mate.” 
He
bent a
nd scooped Neomee into his arms carrying
her
still dripping
wet to the bed.
 

She
struggled in his arms as
he
dropped her on the bed and r
ipped her wet gown from her
.  He stood over her staring down at her
beautiful lithe body
. 
She
made to scoot
away, but Bray caught her
ankle
and pulled her to him. 

Dropping to the bed,
he
inhaled deeply as he licked Neomee’s trembling lips
before his kiss crushed her mouth, his hands moving freely over her
glistening
body. 
His mouth assaulted hers, forcing her lips to part and accept his tongue.  When he finally pull
ed back from his kiss, Neomee turned
her head to the side.

“Please,
”
she
whispered, “you’re hurting me...Master.” 

Bray pull
ed back and stared
down at
her
as if
he’d been slapped
.  Seeing the smear of blood
her
re-opened back left on the bed,
he
growled and bent to roughly grab
her
chin, “Never call me that again!  You may call me Bray or mate.”  Then
he
stormed from the room as Neomee lay terrified
,
exhausted
, and wet
on the bed.

C
hapter 15

What in the hell is wrong with me?
  He’d gone too far with
Neomee
and he knew it.  He’d been so
determined to claim her that he hadn’t even realized he’d hurt her.  It was mor
e than foolish, i
t was selfish.  His teeth gnashed as he roamed the halls.  He needed an outlet for his anger and sex was obviously out.  He wouldn’t find relief in the training arena either.

On the night Neomee was punished he’d carried her to his quarters, ensure
d
the healer was doing his best to care for her
,
and then
he’d
gone
hunt
ing
. 
He’d shifted and scoured the temple searching out his brethren Cats that
had held him down
, the one
s
who’d prevented him from protecting his mate. 

A mirthless smile tweaked his lips at the memory.  He’d earned the title Prince of Cats because after Sanura had died he’d only wanted to join her.  His life was so insignificant to hi
m that he was willing to risk losing it
and he had risked it
daily.  The other Cats quickly realized that Bray didn’t care whether he lived or died.  It was reflected in his fighting skill and in his willingness to go to war, to protect the temple from her enemies
,
and to seek out any who would challenge their way of life.  But when he’
d hunted the night of Neomee’s m
a’at it had been different.  He hadn’t fought because he didn’t care whether he lived or died.  He fought for vengeance and for her protection.  He’d killed that night.  Many of his brothers had bled out by his hands and even now he couldn’t bring himself to regret his actions.

It was a strange feeling for him.  Typically when he was in the throes of battle somewhere deep inside he always hoped tha
t he wouldn’t survive.  He prayed that hi
s life flame would finally be extinguished so that he could once again be with Sanura, but it wasn’t the same anymore.  Now he wanted to live.  He wanted to best his enemies and be done with the task quickly so that he could get back to Neomee.  She needed him.

Unfortunately, as a result of what he’d done the remaining Cats now avoided him as if he
had been cursed with the plague.  Madu had come to see him and to tell him that there were rumors in the temple that Bray had lost his mind.  Madu was worried for not only his
friend’s
sanity, but his life as well.

“There are whispers of revolt among the Cats my friend.  They fear you
have designs of wiping us out then claiming the place of the Priest.”

The Priest
.
  He’d hunted the false prophet as well only to discover that he’d taken a sabbatical from the temple.  It was rare, but it did happen.  The Priest would be making pilgrimage to see the Vizier
, the highest official in Egypt to serve the Pharaoh. 
Coward!

“I have no desire to be Priest of the temple,” Bray spat.  “I just want his head.”

“No brother,” concern laced Madu’s tone.  “Without a Priest
the temple would
fall.  We need a leader, an advisor.”

“We can lead ourselves!”  Bray saw it then.  Just a brief flicker in Madu’s gaze that was quickly hidden, but it was there.  Madu also believed that Bray was losing his mind and the fact that his most trusted friend now doubted him gave him pause.
 
What is wrong with me?
  He knew the answer though.  Neomee.  She’d bewitched him body and soul.  He started again, this time with a little more control.  “Madu don’t you see?  We don’t need the Priest.  We can govern ourselves.  There exists a hierarchy among us.  Why bow to another when we are the guardian Cats of Thebes?”

“But...the Priest is a Cat.”

“Not like us,” Bray growled
.  “He’s never trained, never hunted, never killed.  He’s only ever given orders.  He may carry the ability to shift, but no one has ever seen it done.  He is not one of us.  He is not a guardian Cat!”

When Madu visibly paled Bray actually felt bad.  He knew his friend had sought him out in hopes of dispelling the rumors of Bray’s fractured sanity.  Instead he was only confirming that the
rumors could be true.  He was speaking of revolt, of overthrow, of blasphemy.  All were crimes punishable by death.

“And what of the Vizier.”  Madu’s eyes saucered, “What of the Pharaoh?  They will not tolerate our self-governance.”

“They cannot stop us!”  It was the truth.  Only the guardian Cats of Thebes had been blessed by the Gods with the power to shift. 
It had to have meant something.  “We should take orders from no man.  We have been sanctified by the Gods.  Is it not then a desecration of their gift to fail to recognize it?”

The corner of Ma
d
u
’s eye crinkled as he studied his friend warily.  “Where is all this coming from?  Is it the slave?”

“Her name is Neomee.”
He hadn’t intended for the correction
to come out as harshly as it had
.

“I heard what the Priest had done to her.  It was unfortunate, but
are you certain she is worth all this?”

“All this?” Bray snarled.  “Don’t you want to be free of their rule?  To come and go as you please
?
T
o hunt and shift as you see fit?  To choose our own battles and defend our own beliefs instead of protecting theirs?  The only thing Neomee has done is to make me realize that we are all slaves!”

Madu shrugged, “I don’t know what to tell you my friend.  I would rather battle alongside you than live in peace alone, but right now the men do not trust you.  You’ve killed several in the
past few days.  It would be near impossible to get them to follow you in this right now.”

Bray growled with the knowledge that
Madu had been right.  He was irrational at the moment and it was the result of his protective instincts where Neomee was concerned.  He’d killed nearly e
very Cat that had aided in her m
a’at and he still had intentions of killing the Priest, the Vizier be damned.

Finding himself in the garden Bray looked up to frown at the Cats that guarded the wall.  Two of the guardians ignored him, one slipped back into the temple, and the third stared at him for long moments before nodding his head in silent acknowledgment. 
They’re not all angry.
  It was a start.

Chapter 16

The weeks passed as Neomee’s back healed.  Bray checked in on her often, brought her food and water
,
and returned to their quarters at night, and while they slept together, Bray made no
attempt to mate w
ith her again.  Nor did he speak of what had happened between them.  As a matter of fact, he no longer spoke to her at all.

Frequently, he would escort her out to the flower garden where they would sit silently in the afternoon sun.  On one
visit
to the garden, they approached a group of three
Cats in a tunnel corridor.  As
he passed, one Cat sniffed the air, “
Haven’t claimed your mate yet?  If you need instruction Bray, I’d be happy to assist.”