Kiss of Heat (3 page)

“I really don’t think you have a choice.” She stalked from the room, head held high.

She really didn’t give a damn what he thought she could or couldn’t do. She had endured eight years of physical hell, of emotional pain, of fighting to make sense of why her body was betraying her, why she needed so desperately yet her flesh rebelled at any other man’s touch.

Learning the reason why hadn’t helped her emotional strength. To know it was a mating rather than a hunger, a bond that, so far, remained unbroken hadn’t helped. Callan was already furious that she had told him about the physical problems she had experienced, that she had dared to attempt sterilization to ease the pain. His disappointment in her had shamed her more than she expected.

As she left the kitchen, she heard her brother’s voice arguing with Kane, Merinus pleading. The others, of course, were commenting. She didn’t care. They hadn’t lived the past eight years in her skin. Hadn’t hungered with no idea of why, needed and ached for a touch that was never there.

She grabbed the banister of the stairs and began to race up the steps. The need for escape throbbed in her veins, pounded in her heart.

“Sherra.” His voice stopped her at the landing.

She stopped, nostrils flaring as she breathed in roughly, her teeth clenching as she fought to keep from screaming out. Turning slowly, she looked down at Kane.

Her body trembled in hunger. Her mouth watered with it as her tongue throbbed, the glands at the side aching to release the hated hormone. It was bad enough it was making her crazy, but she knew damned good and well what would happen if Kane ingested it.

The chemical reaction hadn’t been as strong in Callan and Taber as it had been with their mates. If it held to pattern, it would be worse than super Viagra when it hit Kane’s system. The thought of that had her pussy weeping in sobbing need. Like another entity with a mind all its own, it seemed to howl silently in protest of her refusal to allow it ease.

Kane was too damned handsome, tall and strong, the perfect male with tight, well-conditioned muscles. He was lean and humming with sexuality. His dark hair was cut short, his lashes shadowing his cheeks as he watched her.

She didn’t answer him, merely stared back at him coldly as his lips quirked with knowing hunger.

“I’ll be up later. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

Her jaw nearly hit the floor as he turned his back on her and re-entered the kitchen. Don’t make him come looking for her? She thought incredulously. The son of a bitch, she was going to kill him.

Narrowing her eyes she moved quickly to her room. She changed swiftly into form-fitting black pants and a snug sports shirt. She clipped her utility belt and holster around her hips, strapped the dagger to her thigh before tucking her hair under the black baseball cap and snuck from the house. Let him come looking for her. He might get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.

* * * * *

“Aren’t you afraid of pushing her too far?” Taber asked politely several minutes after the rest of the family had left the kitchen and returned to their respective rooms.

For once, he wasn’t with his new mate and wife, Roni. Rather, he watched Kane with those eerie green eyes of his, just a hint of censure showing in their depths.

“Aren’t you afraid Roni’s going to find out about your decision to keep her family away from her?” Kane came back at him, his voice equally polite. “I don’t tell you how to handle your mate, Taber. Don’t try to tell me how to handle mine.”

Taber’s lips lifted in a snarl, showing the dangerous canines at the side of his mouth. Kane smirked mockingly.

“It looks sexier when Sherra does it. Don’t bother trying to intimidate me, cat boy. I only go easy on you because you’re prick enough to take offense and I don’t really want to take the time to scuffle with you.”

Kane moved lazily from the chair, picking up his coffee cup as he headed for the full pot and, hopefully, the patience to deal with Taber. Of all the Breed males, Taber had to be the most temperamental. And Kane figured it was just his luck that this one decided to try to step in and berate him for his behavior with Sherra.

“Scuffle with me?” Taber growled. “You make it sound like a wrestling session. I could take your throat out, Tyler.”

“You could try.” Kane poured his coffee and fought back the weariness dragging at his mind.

He had been awake, it seemed, for months. The arousal was growing nightly, leaving him sleep-deprived and patience-worn.

When Taber said nothing else, Kane turned back, lifted a brow in question and waited. The Breed males could be unpredictable on the best of days; though they did an admirable job of not resorting to violence, he was aware the potential was there.

Taber shifted, staring off for a second, his shaggy black hair falling over his face before he swiped it back carelessly and turned back to face Kane.

“I was there when she realized you weren’t coming back. I was there when she lost that kid and when she nearly died,” Taber snapped. “You weren’t. I’m sick of seeing her hurt because of you, Kane. Lay off of her.”

“Go back to your mate and play kitty tricks,” Kane retorted, growing angrier as the other man watched him. “Do you think I can’t imagine the hell she went through, you purring bag of mismatched genetics? Do you think there’s a chance in hell I’m going to let her continue to torture the hell out of both of us because of her damned stubborn pride? Get a clue, Reynolds. Not any longer.”

Taber’s body shifted dangerously, his eyes glittering with jade-colored fury as a growl rumbled in his chest.

“You’re a smart-mouthed bastard, Tyler. Count yourself lucky you’re Callan’s brother-in-law and Sherra’s mate, or I’d kill you for that.”

Kane snorted. “Don’t let that stop you from trying. I’m sure Merinus would forgive you pretty quickly.” He set the cup on the small island counter, gearing for battle. He’d just as soon kick this arrogant panther’s ass than look at him right now.

“Let up on her, Kane,” Taber ordered again. “You don’t have to stay on her ass so much.”

“I have yet to get on her ass.” Kane smiled tightly. “And when I do, you won’t be invited to watch. Unlike your other brother, I’m not exactly into an audience nor do I need any help.”

Tanner’s sexual practices were getting out of hand, but no more so than Kane’s libido was. If he didn’t get Sherra into a bed fast, he was going to go certifiably insane.

“This isn’t about Tanner,” Taber reminded him furiously. “It’s about Sherra. And I’m warning you…”

“Don’t make that fucking mistake.” Kane’s voice lowered dangerously. “Don’t even attempt to warn me of shit, Taber, because that’s where we’ll fight. She’s my woman, my mate, my business. Stick to your own and stay the hell out of mine.”

“You’re killing her.” The growl was becoming deeper, harsher. “I won’t let you continue this, Kane.”

“I dare you to stop me,” Kane sneered. “I’ll kick your cat ass all over this kitchen, Taber, if you even try.”

“All right, children, break it the hell up.” Roni stood in the doorway, her hands propped on her curvaceous hips, her blue eyes snapping with anger as she glanced at her mate. “What the hell is wrong with you two? This is not the time for this.”

“Roni, this doesn’t concern you,” Taber warned softly as Kane shook his head, his hand raising until he could pinch the bridge of his nose irritably.

“Lord save me,” he muttered. “Is the moon phase in the wrong fucking place or something? Some kind of weird Feline male PMS?” he asked Taber confrontationally. “Man, mating has not chilled your ass out any.”

He was pushing the other man and Kane knew it. He knew it and refused to back down from it. He was sick of the growling, the snarling and the resentful looks he was given, more often than not, from the other man.

“Taber!” Roni was nearly screaming as she grabbed her mate’s arm a second before he jumped for Kane.

Kane let a slow, cold smile shape his lips.

“Let him go, Roni. I’ll deliver his pelt later.”

“Damn you, Kane, shut the hell up,” Roni yelled as Callan, Merc, Tanner and several others rushed through the other side of the kitchen, coming to a surprised stop at the scene that awaited them.

“What the hell is going on here?” Callan asked softly, his voice rumbling, his amber gaze less than pleased.

“Hey, Garfield, your brother here figures he can order me back from my mate since he’s a happy little purr boy with his own. Perhaps you should advise him otherwise.” Kane leaned his hip against the island counter, though he watched the furious panther carefully. “I simply let him know he could kiss my damned ass to hell and back because it’s not going to fucking happen.” He directed his less than polite comments to the growling panther in question.

Roni had placed her body in front of her mate’s, a death grip on his arms now.

“Callan, do something.” She turned to the Pride leader at her mate’s low order to release him immediately.

Kane watched his brother-in-law from the corner of his eye, saw the strain in the other man’s face, the indecision. Tanner shook his head and mumbled something beneath his breath that had Callan glancing at him sharply.

“Kane, let it go,” he finally said meaningfully. “Just walk away, man. For all of us.”

There was weary resignation in Callan’s voice, a sense of sadness that had Kane’s own instincts kicking into overdrive.

“Why?” Kane asked him softly. “I won’t let her go, Callan, anymore than you’ll ever let Merinus go…”

“Callan didn’t destroy Merinus,” Taber fumed with primal fury. “I won’t watch you rip her apart again, Kane. Get the hell out of here and off the compound until this eases for her. Now, before they have to carry you out.”

Kane bared his own teeth now. “You better hold him tight, Roni,” he told her softly. “Because I just may have to teach your little kitty some manners.”

Kane couldn’t understand his own sense of rage any more than he understood Taber’s, but it was impossible to miss the murder in the man’s eyes when he set his wife aside and rushed him.

Pivoting, Kane moved immediately to meet him when the others jumped between them. Tanner and Merc grabbed Taber, restraining him as Roni’s voice raised in alarm and Callan stepped in front of Kane.

“Enough.” There was no anger in Callan’s voice, no resentment. He watched Kane compassionately instead. “Bloodshed won’t fix this, Kane. Fighting won’t fix it.”

“She’s mine,” Kane snapped.

“And for this reason, I’ve stood aside, just as Tanner and Dawn have stood aside as we’ve watched Sherra suffer since you’ve come here,” he just quietly. “For Taber, the battle is harder. You see, it was Taber who found her lying in her own blood as she miscarried. It was Taber who heard her tears, what may have been her dying words had he not acted as quickly as he did. It was Taber, Kane, that she begged to allow her to die because she could not face life without you or your child. And it was Taber who swore vengeance for her. You can’t erase eight years of pain, fury and hatred merely because it was a misunderstanding.”

Kane stared at him in shock before his eyes swung to the piercing, furious gaze Taber had leveled on him. His hands clenched and unclenched, his jaw bunching with his own agony.

“I love her,” he said, his voice tight, his chest aching with this new information given him. “I always loved her, and your threats won’t change that. Neither will your hatred. Just as it won’t change the fact that I’m not leaving and I’m not letting up. Every damned one of you might as well get used to that.”

He stomped from the room, his own anger, his pain, overwhelming. His need to watch Sherra, to just know she did indeed still live driving him, pushing him… Destroying him…

Chapter Three

The night was her friend. Sherra moved along the mountain above the Breed estate. She often took for granted the clear view she possessed in the darkness. It may as well have been daylight, despite the lack of light that came from the moonless sky. She found comfort in the darkness. A place to hide and attempt to make sense of the growing demands of her body.

The demands Kane was making were even worse. She fought the unexplained growing awareness inside her on a daily basis. Fought her need to touch him, not in hunger or in lust, but just to assure herself he was there. That he lived. That he breathed. She fought it to the point that she feared even the lightest contact between them because it was growing harder by the day to deny the fragile bond she could feel forming within her soul.

The cold was more than welcome now. The crisp, sharp edge of the temperature helped to clear her head, to hold onto her defenses. She could endure the temperatures better than the rest of her family could. Though she didn’t have the pelt that the Snow Leopard possessed, she did have a tolerance to cold weather that the other Breeds didn’t. The heat surging inside her could have had a lot to do with it, though.

The mating heat was worse than she had ever known it to be. As though Kane’s presence had somehow stoked the fires hotter inside her. Her tongue was swollen now; the glands at the sides were engorged, pulsing with the need to release the rich hormone contained within them.

It had shocked her, the knowledge that she was displaying some of the characteristics that the males were showing. Her mate wasn’t a Breed. The aphrodisiacal hormone would drive his sexuality higher, as it would hers. She closed her eyes at the thought. Doc Martin had warned her it would be like pumping Kane full of super Viagra, making certain he was able to perform often enough to ensure conception.

The thought of Kane with a perpetual hard-on was more than she could fathom. Hell, he kept one now for the most part. Every time she saw him, his eyes glistened with arousal and the bulge in his pants seemed to get bigger. Tempting her. Oh Lord, how he tempted her.

She licked her lips as she worked her way along the mountain. She remembered clearly the steely hardness that rose from between his thighs. The shape and length, the thickness of the flesh, the feel of him. She wanted to groan in need at the remembered taste of his come pulsing across her tongue and down her throat. Or the feel of him thrusting between her thighs. Her pussy wept at the thought of that one.