The Dark-Hunters (333 page)

“Trust me, Maggie,” he breathed in her ear a moment before he was inside her again.

She gasped at the deepness of his penetration. Her breasts tingled as he thrust against her. Using leverage from the headboard, she met him stroke for stroke. He cupped her breasts an instant before he buried his lips against the nape of her neck.

Marguerite groaned at the hotness of his lips, at the feeling of his hand cupping her breast while he trailed the other down her stomach, to her wet cleft. Her breath caught as he toyed with her in time to his thrusts. She’d never felt anything more incredible than him in and around her. It was as if she were consumed by him.

And when she came again it was so intense and ragged that she literally screamed.

Wren laughed in satisfaction until his own blinding orgasm took him. He buried himself deep inside her as his entire body shook. Never had he felt anything like it. His heart hammering, his powers sizzling, he wrapped himself around her and pulled her back on the bed so that she was lying on top of him, completely exposed.

Marguerite gave a ragged but contented sigh as Wren gently stroked her breasts while she lay atop him. She was so sated that she felt like a well-fed kitten ready for a long nap.

Wren hooked his ankles to hers and spread her legs wide. “I don’t think I could ever get enough of you, Maggie,” he whispered as he slowly began to toy with her again.

She shivered at the sensation of his long, lean fingers stroking her cleft. Of them delving deep inside her body, stoking yet another fire inside her. She reached down to cover his hand with hers as he pleased her even more.

“What is it like to be mated?” she asked, wondering if it could get any better than this.

“For the female, heaven. For a male, it sucks.”

She frowned at his deep, almost angry tone. “How so?”

“Once our kind mates, it really is until death we do part. There is no freedom from each other so long as both mates live.”

She started to correct him about the “our” until she realized that she was his kind now.

She was no longer fully human.

“Is that so bad?”

“Not if both are loyal to each other. The male’s job is to protect the female. To keep her and their children safe. So long as she lives, he can never again touch another woman sexually. Essentially we become impotent around anyone but our mates.”

Now she understood his father’s anger. “Your father can’t even take a mistress?”

“No. No male can. But the females are free to share their bodies with anyone they choose to. They just can’t reproduce with anyone other than their mate.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“It isn’t. It was one of the curses that the three Fates handed out to my people when we were created.”

She hissed as he continued to stroke her and moved her hips against his hand.

All in all, what he described didn’t sound too bad. “But if one of the mates dies, the other is free?”

“Yes, unless we have bonded our life forces together. Then if one dies, both die.”

She closed her eyes and smiled. “That sounds romantic.”

He nuzzled her hair with his face as he continued to stroke her. “In a way it is. It’s the ultimate sacrifice between two beings who never want to live apart. They say that not even the Fates can break such a bond. If one of the lovers is reincarnated, then the Fates must reincarnate the other so that they can be together again in their new lives.”

She opened her eyes as Wren pulled away from her. He slid her off of him, onto the bed. She frowned at him until he moved on the bed until he was lying between her open thighs.

“You are so beautiful,” he said raggedly, his eyes burning into hers.

Marguerite wanted to tell him then how much she loved him, but she was afraid to. She wasn’t even sure why. But something inside was scared that if she said it, she would ruin this moment, and she didn’t want it to end.

Wren took her hands into his and led them to the center of her body. “Hold yourself open for me, Maggie,” he said, his voice thick. “I want to see you touching yourself while I taste you.”

She shivered at his words as she reached to comply. The instant she did, he dipped his head and took her into his mouth. Marguerite choked on a cry of pleasure as he tongue-tormented her with the sweetest ecstasy she’d ever known.

How could any man feel this good?

And in that moment, she realized something.

She wanted to be mated to him. Forever.

Are you insane?

But her heart didn’t listen to her head. Then again, hearts were seldom rational. All she knew was what she felt. She loved this man with a depth of emotion she had never known before.

How could she not?

He had given her more than anyone else she’d ever known. He listened to her. He cared for her.

She had actually tamed him. At least partially. When they had met, he had never known a woman’s touch. He’d been wild and feral.

Now he was tender with her. He took care of her.

And she wanted to take care of him.

Marguerite threw her head back as she came again. She shook all over from the intensity of her pleasure mixed with her volatile emotions.

He can never be yours.…

No, Wren Tigarian could never belong to Marguerite D’Aubert Goudeau. In her blue-blood, plastic world of conformity, he would always stand out.

But she was no longer Marguerite D’Aubert Goudeau, at least not entirely.

She was Maggie Goudeau.

Human.

Tigress.

And she wanted Wren Tigarian as her own. She just had to convince three very stubborn Fates that she was a beast to be reckoned with. One who was more than willing to fight for this man.

Chapter 14

Wren lay naked, spooned up against Maggie while she slept in his arms. He had his cheek pressed against hers as he listened to her breathe. She had the faintest little snore that warmed him through and through. He was tired, too, but he wanted to hold her as a man at least for a little while longer while the scent of her hung heavy in his senses.

It was heaven to be in her arms, and he cursed the Fates for not allowing them to mate. It wasn’t fair or right. Surely they were meant to be together.…

Suddenly he heard something out in the hallway.

Wren moved slowly from the bed as he felt an odd fissure ripple down his spine. It wasn’t like the one he got when his father was nearby.

It was …

Eerie, powerful, disturbing.

He crossed the room, his attention focused on what he’d heard outside.

Closing his eyes, he dressed himself and Maggie an instant before he felt a presence behind him.

Wren spun around to find one of the tigers in human form who had assaulted him in Sanctuary.

The tiger moved forward to try to put a collar over Wren’s neck.

Wren shoved the Katagari back, into the wall. The collar fell to the floor with a thud as the tiger growled at him.

Maggie came awake with a gasp.

“Run, Maggie,” Wren said as he put himself between her and the tiger.

Two more tigers popped in.

Marguerite’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the tigers and man after Wren. An unbridled fury started deep inside her. She’d never felt anything like it as it rose up.

It was the beast inside her. She knew it. She actually felt it straining and hissing.

Aching.

And it wanted blood.
Their
blood.

Acting on pure animal instinct, she launched herself from the bed at the tiger closest to her. It turned on her to fight. For a fleeting instant, fear gripped her, and then it was gone, washed away by her fury.

And in its place was a confidence the likes of which she’d never experienced before. Trusting herself completely, she stood her ground and caught the tiger by the neck.

Wren was stunned as he watched Maggie take the tiger. He smiled an instant before something shocked him. He couldn’t breathe as the electrical energy went through his entire body, flashing him from tiger to human and back again.

He hit the ground hard, terrified of what would happen to Maggie while he was completely incapacitated.

Marguerite froze at the sight of Wren. He was on the floor writhing as if in excruciating pain as he changed forms back and forth at an alarming rate.

The tiger she’d been fighting manifested itself as a human male. “Collar the bastard.”

She didn’t know what that was, but she was sure it was bad. She changed back to human form. “No!” she shouted, rushing at them. She threw herself down on top of Wren and wished herself out of the room.

Please let this work!

Two seconds later, she was in his father’s bedroom.

Aristotle looked up from his desk with a frown. “Maggie?”

Before she could answer, the tigers poofed into the room with them.

“They’re trying to kill Wren,” she warned his father.

He came out of his chair ready to battle them.

As the human moved for Wren, Marguerite sprang at him. She shoved him back so hard that he actually cracked the wall.

“Stay out of this, woman, or die,” he warned her.

She glared her hatred at him. “The only one who’s going to die tonight is you, asshole.”

Aristotle caught the man as he lunged toward her. He twisted the man’s head around until a gruesome crack sounded. The man turned into a tiger before he slid to the ground, where he lay motionless.

The other two tigers vanished.

Only partially relieved, Marguerite knelt beside Wren, who was still flashing back and forth between his forms.

“Baby?” she said, wanting to help him.

“They must have hit him with a Taser,” Aristotle said. “You should probably be told that if you get shocked at all, this is what will happen to you, too. You can’t hold on to a form after such a thing.”

Well that was nice to know, but it didn’t help Wren. “What can we do to help him?”

“Nothing,” Aristotle said sadly. “The electricity has to stop bouncing around his cells. Once it does he’ll be back to normal, but in the meantime he’s helpless.”

Aristotle locked gazes with her. The heat and fear in his blue eyes scorched her. “And you two are out of time. Now that they know you’re here, they’ll be back for both of you. In force.”

“What are we to do?” she asked, willing to fight or do whatever was necessary to protect Wren.

His father placed a hand on Wren’s arm. “The full moon is cresting. It’s time to send you both back to where you came from.”

Marguerite shook her head as a new fear gripped her. “It’s too soon. We have no proof of his innocence.”

Still those eyes burned her with an intensity that was frightening. “Trust me. Go to the Laurens law office and ask them for a package. I will send it from here and they will have it in their safe, waiting for the two of you. It will prove Wren’s innocence.”

It sounded way too easy. “Are you sure?”

“You have no choice, Maggie,” he insisted. “If you stay here, you’re both dead. I only hope I have enough of my powers left after turning you to accomplish this.”

“And if you don’t?”

He looked away. “It’s all in the hands of the Fates. Let us hope they’re not entirely lacking in compassion.”

Marguerite opened her mouth to argue, but before she could, everything around her went hazy.

A minute later, she found herself on a grassy lawn not too far from her small house in New Orleans.

Shocked and a bit confused, she looked around. It was the middle of the day, and everything looked as if it were normal. The sun was bright and shining over her head. The day appeared calm and tranquil.

Only there was nothing tranquil about what was happening to them right now. There was nothing tranquil about the fear and anxiety she felt.

In human form, Wren hissed, then slammed his head against the grass. She held her breath, expecting him to transform into a tigard again.

He didn’t.

He lay still against the grass, his eyes open with a distant gaze that was filled with remorse and guilt.

“Wren?” she asked hesitantly.

“Damn it, Dad,” he breathed angrily. “How could you?”

She saw the anguish in Wren’s eyes and it set fire to her own. “I’m sorry, Wren. I should have stopped him.”

He looked as if he wanted to scream out at the injustice. It only lasted an instant before he was up on his feet with a grim determination on his face.

Wren held his hand out to her. “C’mon. Let’s go settle this. I’m not about to let him have died in vain.”

She understood exactly what he felt and she was every bit as ready to set this right. “You got it.”

As soon as she touched his hand, he flashed them from the street to a small alcove in the alley behind the Laurens Law Firm. Much to her relief, their clothes changed back into their usual 2005 attire.

“Thank you,” she said, looking down at her pink sweater and khaki pants. “I feel much more normal now, which is really freaky when you consider just how abnormal I’ve become.”

Smiling, Wren gave her an encouraging look before he led her inside.

The dark-haired receptionist frowned at them as they entered. A middle-aged woman who had obviously been chosen for her job because she could intimidate Evander Holyfield, she eyed them suspiciously. It was obvious she didn’t recognize Wren. “Can I help you?” she said coolly.

Wren brushed a hand through his hair. Maggie could sense his unease as he addressed the woman, who had a snobby attitude that would make Marguerite’s father proud.

“Yeah. I’m Wren Tigarian and I was told that my father sent something here for the firm to hold for me.”

The name immediately registered on the woman’s face as she stood up. She looked at him with much more respect. “Oh, you’re one of Mr. Laurens’ personal clients. If you and your friend will wait right here, Mr. Tigarian, I’ll go get him for you.” She paused as she reached the door to the office area. “Would either of you like anything to drink?”

Wren looked at Marguerite.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly.

The woman looked at Wren, who shook his head in declination. “Very good, sir. I’ll be right back with Mr. Laurens. Y’all just make yourselves at home.”