Rapture Untamed
Jaquette du Livre
American Light Romantic Fiction, Romance - Paranormal, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Romance, Romance & Sagas, Fiction - Romance
They are called Feral Warriors—an elite band of immortals who can change shape at will. Sworn to rid the world of evil, consumed by sorcery and seduction, their wild natures are primed for release . . . The most combative—and tormented—of all the Ferals, Jag is a predator who hunts alone—until daemons terrorize the human population. To stop them, he partners with Olivia, a flame-haired Therian temptress as strong as she is beautiful. But Olivia is no ordinary immortal. The survivor of a vicious supernatural attack, she possesses a deadly and forbidden skill—one that must remain hidden, especially from the powerful Feral Warriors. As Jag and Olivia's sensual dance of dominance and seduction gets wilder and hotter, a dark force sets its sights on Olivia, threatening to destroy everything she has vowed to protect. And the only one who can save her soul is the arrogant jaguar shifter she lusts for but dares not love.
Rapture Untamed
A Feral Warriors Novel
To Kelly
“The wards, Mystic! Set the protective wards!” The leader of…
Olivia perched on the edge of the leather chair, her…
“Those heading west should be aware that last night Hawke…
Kougar sliced the knife across his wrist, murmuring the words…
Olivia sat alone at the huge table in the Feral’s…
By the time Jag and Olivia reached the dramatic confluence…
Olivia drove out of Harpers Ferry, out of the reach…
The first scream tore through the night, raking his jaguar’s…
Jag watched Olivia unfasten her pants, all too aware of…
On four legs, Kougar ran up the steep hillside, deep…
They walked back to the Hummer in silence, Jag in…
Jag’s nose hurt like a son of a bitch, but…
Olivia stood beneath the spray of the hot shower, feeling…
“How’s the wanker?”
The rain started on the drive out of Harpers Ferry.
Darkness. Nothingness.
He had to reach Olivia!
Jag hauled Olivia through the house and up the first…
The night was cool and clear, the breeze light as…
Jag’s head pounded, his body turning to ice as the…
“Where is he?” Lyon demanded. “He’s not answering his cell.”
The two large SUVs pulled off a little-traveled stretch of…
Jag pulled on the power of the jaguar that lived…
The other Ferals had the Mage down to a manageable…
Firelight flickered over the dark-paneled walls and ceiling of the…
The Scottish Highlands, 1433
“The wards, Mystic! Set the protective wards!” The leader of the Therian enclave’s voice rang through the firelit cave, his tone at once hard and desperate as he stabbed at the first of the deadly draden to find them. “Ye must set the wards!”
Smoke from the cooking fire spiraled up and out, ghostly fingers reaching for the roof and walls, twisting and twirling from the movements of the agitated Therians.
“I’m trying!” the mystic Isobel cried. “I canna remember the chant. The Mage have stolen the chant.” Her voice cracked, tears rolling down her cheeks, though her hands fluttered and swung as they always did when she drew the magic shields to protect them from the draden who fed off Therian life force.
Olivia pressed closer to her mother and felt the strong arm clasped around her shoulders tighten. She looked up to find her mother’s lips trembling, her eyes glistening in the firelight.
“Mama?”
“Shh, Olivia.” Her mother pulled her hard around, pressing Olivia’s face tight against her stomach. “’Twill be all right, my wee girl.” But her mother’s voice throbbed with a fear Olivia had never heard before, and her own eyes filled with tears, her heart beginning to pound.
“I’ve lost the chant. I’ve lost the chant!” Isobel’s tearful lament rang through the cave.
“Those few were only the first!” the enclave’s leader, Jamie, shouted. “Dinna let down your guard. This close to Feral Castle, the draden will swarm. Goddess help us, if I had known the Mage had cast a spell over Isobel, we’d have fled the other way.” His words were filled with an anguish that made Olivia tremble. “There is naught to be done now but fight.”
Her mother grabbed her shoulders, wrenching Olivia back as she knelt before her. Tears ran freely down Mama’s pretty face as she lifted her hand to stroke Olivia’s cheek.
“I love ye, sweet lass. More than any mother ever loved a daughter, I love ye.” Raw grief formed dark pools in her mother’s eyes.
A sob tore at Olivia’s throat. “Mama.”
The hands on her shoulders tightened. “The draden will be full upon us soon. I’ll fight them and protect ye
as long as I can, but if they swarm as Jamie fears, there will be naught I can do but cover you. Ye’ll stay there, beneath me, aye?” She shook Olivia gently. “Ye’ll stay there beneath me! No matter what.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Her mother’s face dissolved into tears, and she hugged Olivia fiercely against her once more. “Oh, sweet lass.”
The Mage had attacked their village just that morn. In Olivia’s mind’s eye, the fires continued to flame. Jamie had led the Therians into the mountains at a run, toward the protection of the guardians of the race, the Feral Warriors. But the Ferals were more than a day’s journey, and the draden hunted them at night. Still, Isobel should have been able to protect the cave with her magic. They should have been safe.
If only her papa were here. Several days ago, he’d gone to meet with the Ferals about some other matter and had not yet returned. If he were here, he would save them.
A scream shattered the heavy silence, then another.
Mama pulled her around, tucking Olivia’s back against her front as she hunched over, pulling her knife from her boot. Olivia peered across the cave, her heart seizing with terror at the sight that met her eyes. Draden flew into the cave like a dark cloud, more draden than she knew existed. More than she could count. The little beasties weren’t big, not much bigger than Papa’s closed hand, their bodies floating and smokelike. But their faces…
As two flew right at her, she screamed and pressed back against her mother, squeezing her eyes closed against the sight of the ugly, twisted features and the sharp, horrible teeth. She peeked as Mama stabbed at one, digging out its heart, turning it to smoke. But as that one disappeared, Mama cried out, and Olivia knew the other had bitten her, latching onto her to feed.
More flew at them, and her mother fought them all, but there were too many! One bit Olivia’s arm, its sharp little teeth tearing at her tender flesh. As Olivia cried out, her mother stabbed it, destroying it.
The light of the fire flickered on the cave walls, slashed over and over by draden shadows. All around the cave, her people fought the horrid beasties, even as the draden rode them, clamped on to arms and faces and heads. As Olivia watched, Isobel fell to her knees, then Angus, and Barbara. Jeaniene fell all the way down, asleep.
Why would she sleep when she needed to fight?
Behind her, Mama stumbled. “Olivia. Now,” she gasped. “On the floor, lie flat.”
Olivia had barely sunk to her knees when her mother pushed her down, falling on top of her roughly.
“Mama, you’re too heavy.”
“Shh, lassie.” Her mama’s voice was low and soft against her ear. Sleepy-sounding. “I love ye, Olivia. I’ll always love ye.”
Mama’s head dropped heavily beside her own as a
draden bit Olivia on her cheek with a bolt of fiery pain, blocking her sight. She screamed and struggled to free her arm to swat it away, but another caught in her hair and sank razor-sharp teeth into her scalp.
“Mama!”
Terror beat at her chest, tears running down her cheeks, as she freed her hand and pulled at the draden on her cheek, sinking her hand into the globby mass. Her small fingers came in contact with the pulsing, beating heart, and she grabbed it and pulled. The draden disappeared in a puff of smoke, but seconds later, another took its place. They were flying at her from all sides, sinking their teeth into her face and head, hands and legs, wherever her mother hadn’t covered her.
Choking on her tears, she fought and screamed until her throat was raw and her voice hoarse. But no one came, no one helped her. And soon she, too, started to feel sleepy. She stopped fighting. Little by little, the world began to slip away.
Then everything tilted. Dizziness ripped through her head, spinning behind her eyes, waking her up. A draden bit her foot and she cried out, but an odd warmth began to flow up through the bite, a warmth that filled her leg and flowed into her body, making her feel strong and good again.
“Mama?”
But her mama still slept.
Slowly, everything grew quiet. Even the draden had
gone to sleep or flown away. Only the sound of the wood crackling in the dying fire and the chirping of the night insects reached her ears.
Olivia lay there for a long time, as she’d promised her mama, but she grew too restless and finally struggled out from beneath her mother’s still form. All around the cave, her people, her family, lay still and unmoving. Asleep.
She sat beside Mama and stroked her hair as tears clouded her eyes all over again.
They were asleep. They had to be! Therians didn’t die.
Except by draden.
Her tears began to choke her again. If
she
hadn’t died, how could the others have? They hadn’t. They weren’t dead!
But her heart told her otherwise. As she sat in the stillness, she sensed the dead all around her, their spirits whispering over her flesh, bidding her good-bye as they fled the world of the living.
Leaving her all alone.
Her tears turned to great gulping sobs as she buried her face in her mother’s hair, clinging to her still form, until finally she fell asleep.
She awoke to the sound of a distant shout. Daylight filled the cave, and she lifted her head slowly.
“Mama?”
The shout came again. “Olivia!”
Her father’s voice.
Her heart soared, and she scrambled to her feet and ran, flying over the still forms of the people she’d loved.
“Da!”
He met her in the mouth of the cave, his orange hair, the same shade as her own, gleaming in the sunshine as he swept her into his arms and held her so tightly he nearly crushed her. She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face against the warmth of his throat.
“What happened, lassie? I felt your mother…go.” His voice held all the horror of the night as he carried her into the cave.
“The Mage burned the village with fires we couldna put out, so we ran. Jamie said the Ferals would protect us.”
“But ye didna make it to the Ferals’ castle.”
“Nay. Isobel tried to set the wards, but she couldna remember how, Da. And the draden…” The night’s terror engulfed her, and her voice caught on a sob.
Her papa began to shake as he held her, anger lacing his words. “Isobel has been the enclave’s mystic for more than five hundred years. She dinna forget the bloody chant. ’Twas the Mages’ doing.” He stumbled back but held her tight. “Where’s your mother?” His voice broke on the last.
Olivia lifted her head from his shoulder and pointed, but he was already walking in that direction. He already knew.
“Ah, sweet goddess, Alexandra. Sweet, sweet goddess.”
Tears slipped down his cheeks as he stared at his mate.
“She’s asleep, Da.”
“Aye, lassie. Forevermore.” His voice cracked. “How did ye survive, my wee girl?”
“Mama covered me.”
“Ye didna get bit?” He stumbled again, then sank to his knees, pulling her onto his lap with one hand as his other reached for her mother, stroking her hair much as Olivia had during the night.
She looked up at him, saw that his face was too white. But as she lifted her small hand to his cheek, he grabbed her chin and stared at her, turning her face this way and that.
His expression tightened. “Ye’ve draden welts all o’er ye, lass. How did ye survive when the others…?”
His eyes widened, his head jerking back as if he’d been struck.
“Da?” The word trembled from her throat.
He shoved her away, and she tumbled onto the cave floor, a rock biting into her hip. Tears welled in her eyes.
“Livvie, lass.” His voice sounded choked. “Get ye away from me, Livvie. Back away before ye’ve neither mum nor da, aye?”
She didn’t understand. All she knew was her world had broken, and he was the only thing she had. She reached for him.
His eyes took on a terrible light. “Olivia, get back! Get away from me before ye kill me.”
On a heartbroken cry, Olivia leaped to her feet and ran, the tears blinding her as she stumbled through the cave and into the sunshine.
“Livvie, ’tis far enough! Stay there.”
Shaking from head to foot, she sank to her knees in the dirt, sobbing. What had she done?
It seemed forever before her father finally came out of the cave and sank down onto a big rock a short distance away.
She started to rise, to go to him, but his hand shot out, and he shook his head.
“Sit ye there, lassie, and listen, aye?” Though his face was stern, his voice was soft with love. “Just listen, Olivia. Ye’ve been draden-kissed, lass. Do ye ken what that means?”
She shook her head. She’d heard the words and knew them to be bad. Very bad.
“It means the draden changed ye instead of killing ye. ’Twasna something they meant to do, it just happens sometimes.”
Her brows pulled together as she stared at him. “I’m a draden?”
A strangled sound escaped his throat, a sound that might have been a laugh had the circumstances not been so awful. “Nay. But ye suck the life from others as a draden does. Ye were sucking it from me, just now.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know it, lass. ’Tisna something ye’ve any control
over, yet. Whene’er yer feeding, as yer doing now, ye’ll suck the life from anyone near ye whether ye be touching them or not.”
She didn’t understand. All she knew was she was bad now, and her da didn’t want her anymore. Her crying grew into uncontrollable sobs.
“Lass…” Her father’s hands gripped one another hard in his lap. “’Twill be all right. I’ve heard stories of draden-kissed who walked among us for years without anyone knowing. They’d not only learned how to turn the feeding on and off, but to control the strength of it so they could feed without harming us, for the draden-kissed must feed on life energy to survive. But they did so without us even being aware. Ye’ll learn, too, my wee lass. And quickly, before others discover what you are.” He watched her with broken eyes. “They’ll kill you if they find out.”
“The draden?”
“Nay. The Therians. They’ll see ye as a danger they’ll not tolerate.”
“But…” She stared at him. “You?”
“Nay.” Tears gathered in his eyes. “Not me. Never me. I’ve lost everything, my wee girl. I’ll not lose you, too.”
He swiped his hand across his face. “We’ll have to live away from others for now. The draden can no longer hurt you, but you’ll have to learn to fight them all the same. And the Therians, too. If your gift is ever
discovered, ye’ll have to fight and escape. You can do this, lassie. I’ve seen the strength in ye since the day ye were born.”
She watched him, trying to understand. “Did I kill Mama?”
“Nay! Nay, lassie,” he said more softly. “The draden did that.”
“But I could kill you?” She blinked hard against the hot tears, needing to see his face.
“Aye, ye could, and ye probably will. But ye’ll feel no guilt for it, Livvie. If it happens, you’ll go on and not look back. I wish ye to live. Even if it means my own life, I will have you live, daughter mine.”
He opened his arms to her and it was all the invitation she needed. She flew at him, flinging her arms around his neck as he crushed her to him.
“I love ye fiercely, Livvie, and never shall ye forget it. My life for yours is a price I gladly pay.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Da.”
He stroked her hair, then gently pushed her away, and she moved back to where she’d sat moments before.
Though his arms no longer held her, his eyes snared her in a fine mesh of love. “Livvie?”
“Yes, Da?”
He smiled at her through the sadness in his eyes. “Ye were meant to live, my little lass. Never forget that. Ye were meant to live.”