The Liger's Mark (8 page)

“I’m learning just how unimportant some things are, and how much others really mean,” he surprised her by saying. “You matter to me, and when I thought I might lose you for good…” He shook his head. “It’s not a feeling I ever want to face again.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Gabriel said. “Holt said he, Reed and Dusty were standing outside, talking and keeping watch while you rested. Four guys came out of nowhere, pinning them down with gunfire.”

“Are they okay? How did I not hear that? Or anyone else? Oh, God! Were the police called?” Kenzie peppered him with questions as her anxiety grew.

“No police,” Gabriel assured her. “These guys were well trained and well equipped. Your friend Dusty said they had silencers. Made it hard as hell for them to figure out where the group of hunters were firing from. As it was, it took precious minutes for Reed to move around and come in behind them. He’s pretty sure he shot one of them. That’s when they saw two men heading out of your room with you wrapped up and thrown over a shoulder. Holt immediately went after you. He kept them from taking you.”

“Is he okay?” Kenzie demanded. She’d never forgive herself if he’d been hurt trying to get to her.

There was a distinct rumble in Gabriel’s chest, and Kenzie knew he didn’t like her concern for another man. He’d have to learn to deal with it. Holt was her best friend, and that wouldn’t change, especially when it would only be a matter of time before her mate left her again.

“He’s fine,” Gabriel grunted out then cleared his throat. “Took a bullet graze to the upper arm, but it’s not much more than a scratch.”

Kenzie made to move away, and Gabriel clasped her arm.

“I should go check on him,” she said. “Make sure he’s okay.”

“Your friend can wait, mate,” Gabriel grumbled. “What’s going on? Why do you have hunters on your ass? It’s more than obvious they were only after you.”

“Don’t do that,” Kenzie admonished. “It’s not fair.”

“Wanting to know what the hell is going on isn’t fair?”

“No, calling me mate. We’ve had sex. It takes more than that to make us mates.”

His gaze narrowed, nostrils flaring as he glared. He tugged her to him until she was straddling his lap, sheet forgotten as skin met skin. She braced her hands on his shoulders, her nipples beading into hard points against his chest. His cock rose between her thighs, kissing her moist folds. It would be so easy to reach down and hold him steady while she took him.

“We are mates,” he asserted. “I left. I had no other choice at the time. Someone’s life depended on me getting to them. I was following the hunting party that ending up taking you. I needed answers, and I got them before I killed each and every one of them. Had you not been my mate, had I been able to keep my hands off you, I would have left sooner.”

“If I hadn’t forced your hand?” she sneered angrily.

“No one forces me to do anything,” Gabriel stated arrogantly. “I would have come back for you. Nothing would have stopped me from mating you. As it is, I was expecting to find you in Oklahoma, safe.”

“You certainly said otherwise.”

“I was shocked, caught completely by surprise. Those words were as much to remind me of what I needed to do, who I needed to be, as they were to warn you away from me. You deserve a man far better than what you have in me. I’m hard and at times unforgiving. I’ve taken lives with no remorse, and I’ll do so again. I’m demanding and selfish. I never expected to find you, but now that I have, you are mine. My mark declares it. My beast roars with the knowledge of it. I don’t deserve you, but I’ll be damned if I let you go.”

“Does that mean you’re going to give us a chance to get to know one another? To build the type of bond most mates have? Does it mean you’re staying with me?” Kenzie demanded, heart in her throat.

“I’m the Angel, and I can’t change that no matter what others think. I fight. I hunt. I rescue, and I kill. There will be times when I leave you, when I have no other choice. I’ll always come back. As long as there is life in me, I’ll return to you,” he promised.

“I don’t know if I can live that way,” she disclosed. “I won’t spend my life waiting for a man to find time for me.”

“That’s not how it’ll be,” he said.

“Really? Because it sounds to me like that’s exactly how it will be.” She held her hand up when he went to say something else. “Stop. You’re either with me or you’re not. It’s that simple.”

“Nothing is easy,” he charged. “Nice try, by the way. You’ve successfully diverted the conversation for a few minutes. I still want answers. Why are there hunters after you?”

“You mean other than the fact I’m a shifter?” Kenzie asked and sat back, her ass settling on his rock hard thighs, which were at least still covered by the sheet. His cock, however, bobbed in front of her, drawing her wandering gaze again and again. “Do something about that,” she commanded, waving her hand at his crotch.

“Anything particular you have in mind?” he asked with a purr. “Or should I just go with instinct?”

She swallowed, lust riding her hard. Her body craved Gabriel. The animal inside panted at the thought of taking every inch of his glorious erection inside, or maybe that was just the woman. She had the urge to bend down and taste him, just one slide of her tongue from tip to base and back up again.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, voice soft and soothing.

She forced her gaze back to his. “You wanted answers.”

“We can do both,” he offered. “I’m great at multi-tasking.”

She had a feeling giving in to him sexually would weaken her stance, weaken her resolve to settle for no less than an equal partnership. As much as she craved him, she couldn’t give in.

“Let’s talk,” she said and shifted reluctantly off his lap before sliding back under the cover and pulling it up over her breasts. She nodded pointedly at his lap and almost busted a blood vessel forcing her attention to stay focused on his face.

He jerked a pillow over his lap instead and nodded at her. “Why are they after you?”

“I don’t know,” she answered and repeated it when he gave her a look of disbelief. “I really don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out, but I’m not getting any answers. I was hoping there would be some in the box…” She trailed off and looked around.

“What box?” Gabriel asked.

“I was given a box that contained stuff left for me by the woman I thought was my birth mother. I’m sure Holt grabbed it for me.”

There was that rumble of displeasure in his chest again. “Why would your birth mother leave you a box?”

“I should probably start from the beginning,” Kenzie said then shook her head.

“What?”

“I’m realizing how little we actually know about each other.” She rubbed her fingers over the spot where he’d bitten her.

“Do you think others who have mated knew everything about each other when they first met?”

“Maybe not,” she admitted. “They learned over the first few weeks they were together.”

“I robbed us both of that,” he admitted huskily. “I hurt you, and for that I’m incredibly sorry. I’d give anything to remove that emotion from your eyes.”

“You can,” she told him, but they both knew they were at a stalemate there. She needed one thing, and he truly believed he wouldn’t be able to accommodate her wish.

“Let me introduce you to Kenzie Marshall, the woman behind the mate mark. I was left in a hospital when I was weeks old. Abandoned. I made it into the foster system, where I got shuffled between homes until the Marshalls adopted me. They tried to understand me, to accept me, but I was an unusual child, and my unique abilities made people uneasy.”

“Your animal spirit?” he asked.

“The heightened animal senses and instincts were there—sense of smell, hearing. The Marshalls grew scared of me, but despite their fear, they kept me until I graduated from high school. I stayed in contact with a social worker named Ms. Karsey. She promised to give me information on my birth parents if I still wanted it when I turned eighteen.”

“So they knew who left you?” he asked.

“According to Ms. Karsey, the woman checked on me a few times through the years, to see how I was adjusting.”

“The woman was watching to see if your beast emerged. I’m guessing she checked at twelve and again at sixteen,” he stated.

“Yes,” Kenzie agreed with a nod.

Both of those ages when animal emergence often occurred in a shifter. Something to do with hormone changes during puberty. Some developed the symbiotic relationship with their animal side early, while others waited until later in life. Sometimes the beast was so still and silent inside that a shifter never became aware it was there until a time of extreme crisis or danger. There were so many variables where shifting was concerned.

“Before I left for boot camp for the Marines, I went to look for her. When I finally found her, I stayed as far away as I could, watching her and her husband through binoculars. They lived in a heavily wooded area. I saw them shift into cougars and run off. I wanted to be with them.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a cougar,” Gabriel said.

“I’m not sure I am,” she confessed.

“Pretty sure cougars are going to have cougars,” he told her.

“The thing is, I don’t think she was my mother. I’m not sure exactly who she was.”

“Then why was she checking on you?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m hoping the answers are in the box I was given.”

“Where did you get the box?” he demanded.

“When I left Colorado, I went looking for the Marshalls. I thought I’d see if they knew anything from when they adopted me. We never talked about it. Things were so awkward at the end that I didn’t feel comfortable asking them anything. Plus, I had the social worker’s word she’d give me the information I wanted. The Marshalls were gone, though. A neighbor said they’d left just after I headed to basic training.”

“So what about the social worker? This Ms. Karsey?”

“Deceased,” Kenzie answered. “The new woman couldn’t find any record of me. It was as if I’d never been in the system. I went back to the place I’d seen the cougars, but they weren’t there. There was another man living there who sent me to another address, and so on until I finally came across the woman with the box.”

“None of this is making any sense,” he said, looking concerned.

“I know. Trust me, I know.” She hadn’t even told him the things the woman had said.

“What do hunters have to do with any of this?” he asked.

“That’s the thing,” Kenzie admitted. “Before you found me in that cabin, I overheard one of the hunters having a conversation on the phone. He said they’d found her, and he was excited about it.”

“You?” He sat up straighter, as if he were suddenly on full alert. “Why would they be looking for you? What else did you hear?”

“He said I had the mark they’d left.”

His gaze narrowed as he thought. “The one on your ass. Turn over and let me see.” He reached out and gripped her hips, ready to flip her so he could see the spot.

“Excuse me,” she said, slapping at his hands, but he was bigger and stronger and had her turned while she was still arguing. She’d wonder how he’d known about it, but he’d had her on her knees in the back of his vehicle. Not a memory she needed in her head right now.

His fingers traced over the spot. “Not a birthmark then,” he murmured. “I should probably get a picture.”

She scrambled away as soon as he removed his hands and scampered off the bed, fists planting on her hips as her chest heaved with anger. “You’re not taking a picture of my ass,” she fumed. “Now do you want to know the rest or not?”

“There’s more? Christ!”

“You don’t have to be involved in this at all,” she snapped. “I’m more than capable of taking care of it without you.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he sneered. “Should I remind you of the hunters who almost took you? Of just how long you’ve been passed out in this bed with me?”

“Holt’s the one who kept them from taking me and apparently got a bullet for his effort. I would have been just as safe passed out in this bed without you.”

She saw the temper and dominance suffuse his face even before his gruff reply.

“You were ice cold when I took you in my arms. I’m the one who heated you, the one your body craved to be close to.”

“I’m sure my body would have accepted any source of warmth, even—”

“Throw him in my face one more time, and you might as well sign his death certificate.” He stood from the bed and prowled around the foot of it toward her. “Make no mistake. You’re mine. My woman. My mate. I’ll rip the throat out of anyone who challenges that.”

“Even me? What if I’m the one who challenges?” She leaned her head back, exposing her throat to him. “Still feel the urge to rip?”

“You I’ll throw on that bed and fuck into submission,” he assured her, stopping in front of her. His cock stood thick and proud again, the tip glistening with the proof of his desire. “I know I hurt you, and I’ll always regret the circumstances involved when we met. This is the last time I’ll tell you I would have come back for you. The first chance I had, I would have returned for you. Claimed you in all the ways I couldn’t then. Had there not been someone’s life hanging in the balance, I wouldn’t have left. I will not make apologizes to you for who I am. Not to you, the one person who should understand and accept me more than anyone else.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock. Then snapped it closed. Fuck! That smarted. Did he have a point? Was she so wrapped up in how she was hurting because her expectations hadn’t been met that she never once thought of his needs or hopes? God, her head was spinning.

“At the moment, you have two choices,” he stated clearly. “My beast is roaring at the thought of you in danger, and it’s enraged at the thought of you challenging our bond. I’m barely maintaining control.”

She saw the truth of his claim in the way his fisted hands were white due to the force he was using to keep them at his sides. His jaw was tense. His cheeks ruddy with color, body tight, every muscle taut.

“What are my choices?” she asked quietly.

“Get back in bed and be the mate I need or get away from me until I can rein the animal.”