The Liger's Mark (2 page)

She sat up, holding the blanket to her naked chest as she glanced around, unable not to. “He’s gone,” she whispered but didn’t need confirmation of that harsh truth. He had left her. How? Why? Mates weren’t supposed to leave. Mates were forever.

She let Diane comfort her as she finally gave into the tears, but it was no use. They did nothing to alleviate the despair she held deep inside. Zane stepped out, and she dressed, needing to get away, to leave the memories and the cabin, the scents it held, behind.

Zane offered her a few moments of respite by letting her head out alone. She was grateful as she needed the time to collect herself, to deal with the surge of pain that filled her, making her ache as if she were splintering apart. Diane had fussed over her earlier, worried about the bruises on her skin. Kenzie knew those would heal. It was the wounds too deep for the eye to see that might destroy her.

It had been her intention to go back to the house, to find comfort in the arms of her friends. Holt would be there for her. He always was, even when she didn’t deserve him. Then she caught a scent on the wind and wouldn’t have been able to stop herself if she’d wanted to. She tracked her mate through the trees until she found the clearing, and the man waiting there.

Those intense aqua eyes of his were the first things to snag her attention. She’d never seen such color on another person. Then there was the wild mane of deep, golden blond hair with strands of white blond and orange-red weaved through. Broad shoulders and a wide chest, which only added to the intimidation of his six and half feet of height. Just looking at him sent a jolt of pure need through her and had her clenching her thighs and holding her breath. He pushed away from his easy slouch against the side of his SUV, gaze meeting hers as soon as she stepped forward. His feet were spread wide, hands on his hips as he watched her.

“You’re supposed to be safe with your group,” he stated, voice deep and rough, laced with anger.

“You’re my mate,” she countered softly, one hand rising to touch the mark he’d left on her skin. “And you left me.”

“I told you; you couldn’t be mine.”

“This says otherwise,” she said, tapping her finger against the spot on her left side where shoulder blended into neck.

He hung his head, looking momentarily weary. Then those sexy eyes of his met her gaze. “I didn’t think you existed. Never once in my life did I dream there was a mate out there for me.”

“There was,” she whispered. “There is. I’m right here. Why would you leave me?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I can’t have you, Kenzie. My wants are nothing compared to what I must do. I have responsibilities. People who count on me. My life is not my own.”

“You’re leaving me,” she said, the words choking her with emotion. “You’re my mate,” she said again as if he didn’t understand what that meant. “How can you leave me?”

He moved closer then. His larger frame surrounding her. He was so big, over a foot taller than her diminutive height, and it was easy to feel overwhelmed by him. No one had ever made her feel the way he did. She’d never had trouble remembering she was a fighter, a warrior, until him.

“I have no choice,” Gabriel gritted out between his teeth as he caged her against a tree. “I already told you. There are people counting on me. I have a job to do. If I don’t, people will die.”

“What about me? Your mate? I’m counting on you,” she argued.

“Zane promised he’d watch out for you. Tah swore you were family.”

“I need my mate. I’ve waited what feels like forever to find you.”

“I can’t have a mate,” he growled low in his throat. “Not now.”

His words. It was as if he’d stabbed a blade deep into her heart.

He groaned, head dropping to nuzzle her neck. “God, you make me want what isn’t mine to have.”

“I am yours,” she said.

His words made no sense. He was her mate. She knew it. Even now, she felt the bond forming between them. Soon, they would be able to sense each other’s emotions. There was no way he wasn’t feeling it, too.

“I can’t have you,” he whispered. “My life is not my own. I am the hand of justice. The executioner.” The words had a ring of practice to them as if he repeated them often. “I am the Angel.”

She jerked back, bumping her head against the bark on the tree as what he was saying registered. She knew who the Angel was. She’d heard his name whispered before, in both awe and fear.

“Take me with you,” she said but didn’t need to see the shake of his head to know his answer.

“You’ll be safest with Tah and the rest of your pride,” he said. “I’ve spoken to him. He’s taking you someplace where you won’t have to fear hunters sneaking up on you.” His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb rubbing across her skin. “You’ll be protected. No one will get to you. Plus, I’ll see you every moment I can.”

“You’ll see me when you can?” Did he even realize what he was saying? She’d be a booty call and nothing more, certainly not the mate she should be.

“I have no choice,” he groaned. “If I’d known you were here, who you were, I…”

“You would have walked away,” she finished, and a tear slipped from her eye.

He shook his head. “No,” he argued. “I wouldn’t have been able to walk away. I would have been prepared. I would have known what to expect.”

“You would have left me unclaimed. You would have walked away from me without ever letting me taste you.”

“Kenzie, I can feel your pain. It’s ripping me apart,” Gabriel said. “I would do anything to spare you this.”

“Anything but stay,” she whispered. “Anything but take me with you.”

“I can’t.”

She saw it then, an answering brokenness in his gaze, briefly there then gone. In that one moment, she’d seen the reflection of the deep pain she felt.

“My life is not my own.” He said the same words as if they were an oath he’d sworn. “There are people counting on me.”

“I see,” she said, trying desperately to hold herself together. She wanted to ask why again, to keep pushing until he gave her more than the sentences he seemed to be speaking by rote.

“You were never supposed to exist,” he growled, and something locked down inside her. Her whole life, people had made her feel as if she shouldn’t exist. Why would her mate be any different?

“Stop,” he commanded. “That wasn’t how I meant it. I was never supposed to have a mate. Mates are for others. My enemies are vast. Taking you, claiming you… Those rights were never meant for a man like me.”

“Maybe we’ll be lucky then,” she said. “Maybe someone else can claim what you don’t want.”

“Don’t even think about letting another man touch you,” he warned.

“Another already has, and he never left me.”

He growled again, his body growing tense where he surrounded her. “I might not have planned to claim you, but make no mistake. You are mine.”

“Your claim ceases the moment you walk away from me,” she told him.

He shook his head. “No. We both know that’s not how this works. Our DNA is meshing, even now. I know you feel it. Soon, we’ll be connected.”

Yet, she knew he feared it. She felt how much he didn’t want them tied together like that. “That type of bond grows over time. It isn’t instantaneous. It should weaken the longer we stay apart.”

He grimaced, his sharp canines flashing as a rumble sounded in his chest. “My mark will not fade. If he touches you again, he’ll be a dead man.”

“When you send me back, he’ll be there, just as he’s always been. I pushed him away before because I was waiting for you. Don’t expect me to keep pushing him away now that I know my mate doesn’t want me.”

“Damn you,” he whispered and pressed fully against her.

“Damn us both,” she countered, glaring up at him.

His lips claimed hers, and she clawed at him, fighting his clothes to touch flesh. Her heart was broken, her soul tattered and torn. Still, her body wanted. Her blood fired with the wanton need to feel her mate skin on skin. If he was leaving, she’d make damned sure she gave them both something more to remember than what had happened in that cabin surrounded by blood and death.

He swept her into his arms, and she didn’t care where he carried her. She heard the soft click of a door opening, and Gabriel broke the kiss long enough for her to glimpse the SUV and the back hatch he’d opened. The seats were folded down, leaving nothing but a large empty bed between the back and the front seats. He slid her in, following after and pressing her flat as he clicked the button again, shutting the door and locking them inside. Clothes were pulled off and tossed aside, and the next time they touched, there was nothing between them except an emotional wall they couldn’t strip away. His lips painted a path from her mouth, along her jaw, and down her neck where he left a searing kiss against the spot where he’d claimed her before continuing lower.

“Gabriel!” His name was a cry torn from her lips as he took her nipple and sucked it against the roof of his mouth. He used one hand to pinch and tug the other one.

She was on fire. Each stroke of teeth and tongue against her skin felt as if he were sinking farther inside her. He moved his mouth to her other nipple, and she shuddered beneath him, eagerly pushing her flesh into him. This. She would have this before he left her. She would soon cross into full heat, the perfect time for her to conceive a child with her mate, only her mate. Surely the fates would allow her that much when her mate was already planning to leave her.

His mouth moved lower, skimming across her belly and down until he reached the smooth flesh of her sex. His tongue flicked through the folds, tempting and teasing, making her cry out with need as she speared her hands into his hair and tugged him closer. His husky groan washed over her then his lips surrounded her swollen clitoris. He tugged it, licked it, sucked it into his mouth. Two fingers plunged deep in her channel, rubbing her slick walls and making her want more.

“Who do you belong to?” he demanded, tongue batting her clit as he glanced up her body to capture her gaze.

She shook her head, denying him. He didn’t get to make that claim. Not unless he was staying.

He worked her higher, bringing her to the cusp of orgasm and keeping her balanced on the sharp edge of it.

“Who do you belong to?” he demanded again.

“Myself,” she answered. “No one but myself.”

He growled against her folds, and she came with a harsh cry. She was still in the throes when he turned her over onto her knees. Her hands flattened against the floor as he came up behind her. A hard grip on her hips then he was slamming deep, tearing a cry of pleasure from her lips. He pummeled her flesh, punishing them both with the reminder of what they would live without.

She caught the sob that wanted to escape and heard the answer to it in the rumble of his chest.

“My name,” he urged. “Give me that much.”

So much torment in his voice. Pain and even anger. It was hurting him as much as it was hurting her, but the knowledge brought her no relief. Mating shouldn’t hurt.

“Kenzie.” He crooned her name reverently.

“Gabriel,” she whispered, unable to deny him.

She heard his groan of relief just before his teeth sunk deep again. His arms wrapped her tightly against him as they shared the type of pleasure only mates can. As the last echoes faded, he continued to hold her. She felt his heart beating and wondered if it was breaking as hers was. When he pulled away, she forced her trembles to still and used the cold that washed over her to help strengthen her resolve not to cry in front of him. Not to beg one last time for what he was unwilling to give.

Neither of them spoke as he opened the hatch, and they gathered their clothes. She could sense his remorse just as she could his determination to leave. Nothing she said would sway him. When she finished dressing, she stood, refusing to meet his hooded gaze or take the hand he held out to her.

“I’ll walk you back,” he offered.

She shook her head.

“Kenzie—”

“Don’t,” she interrupted. “You have a mission. People counting on you. You need to go. I’ll head back—alone.”

“I never meant to hurt you,” he whispered again, the truth of his words hitting her hard.

“Just go,” she said.

His fingers caressed her cheek before he turned, but she refused to give in to the desire to look at him. She didn’t wait for him to get in the car, to drive away. It was enough for her that he’d turned away from her, his intentions clear. His emotions washed over her as she forced her feet to move. He was filled with guilt and pain, so deep and intense it rivaled her own. There was one difference between them, though. He’d been the one who’d made the choice to walk away. She was only following his lead.

She wrapped her arms around herself, doing her best to hold herself together as she made her way back toward home and the others. She knew something had happened as soon as she hit the yard. Joy was in the air and without asking, she realized Abby and Tah must have welcomed their child into the world. The first baby born into their pride. It was fitting the child should be from their alpha and his mate.

Reno briefly stopped her, his nose twitching as he gave her a funny look, asking if she was okay. She’d served with the majority of the pride as a Marine, and they knew each other fairly well. That bond had only grown as they’d discovered a deeper connection—many of them were shifters. She could have confided in Reno, but it wasn’t what she wanted right now. She told him she was exhausted and went to her room. She curled into herself atop her bed and cried the tears she’d held back from her mate. He’d left. Gabriel had really left her. What did it say that even her mate didn’t want her? As her heart broke, there was a change inside, and the cautious press of the beast she’d always known rested within her.

Kenzie concentrated on what she was feeling, not on the pain of losing her mate but toward the new sensations taking hold inside her. There was curiosity held in check, almost akin to fear—and hunger, a deep, abiding hunger. As if creeping gingerly through the doors of a suddenly opened cage, Kenzie felt her beast. Felt it nudging at her senses, a mere whisper against her skin. That was when she remembered the words spoken before…before her world had changed.