Panther Magic (3 page)

It had been something of a shock
to them both when they realized that their animals had chosen her. While deep
down they’d always known it was a possibility that they would end up mated to
the same woman, the reality of the depths of their feelings, the instant need
to connect and protect this one precious person they were meant to be with had
floored them both.

Little was known about the
mysterious mating bond, thanks to the council’s less than ethical mating
practices, but with fertility rates declining sharply, attitudes were changing.
With the killing of the original shifter in charge of the Mating Project, the
abhorrent practice of mating young shifter females to eligible males had been
mostly abandoned, and a team of scientists was working on getting to the bottom
of the shifter community’s fertility problems. As pure blood panthers, Arran
and Zeb were all too aware of the need to procreate, but being males they’d had
much more freedom to do as they chose, and having always been fascinated by
magic from an early age, had chosen to pursue a career in entertainment.

It had taken them out of the
council’s influence, and perhaps more importantly, eventual success and the
fame that came with it, meant they were safe from this having to mate nonsense.
The brothers had taken full advantage of the willing female pussy on offer, and
had shared plenty of women, co-topped yet more willing submissives, yet one
sniff of Kate’s scent in that swimming pool and everything had changed in an
instant.

However, Kate was human, and the
fact that she seemed to find their profession abhorrent complicated things
somewhat. So, while Zeb had been all for throwing her over his shoulder and
dragging her off caveman style, the more cautious Arran had been the voice of
reason.

“
Let’s invite her to the show, so she can see for
herself, and go from there.”

It seemed a sensible enough plan,
even if the wait to see her again had been killing both of them. If they’d
thought their instant reaction to the human had been an aberration, they were
soon cured of the notion. Both men had scented her the minute she’d sat down in
her seat, looking as though she wanted to be anywhere else but here. She’d
looked good enough to eat in her bikini with her long chestnut hair tumbling
over her back, but in this slinky little black number…

Fuck,
he wanted her, and
judging by the waves of lust and sheer possessiveness that rolled off his five
minutes’ younger brother, Arran, he was barely holding it together either. Zeb
jumped through the last hoop and approached Kate again. At Arran’s gentle
encouragement she crouched down and put out a trembling hand. Zeb grinned as he
licked her fingers, and she gasped out loud, when he padded closer. Her heart
was beating so fast, his little human was in danger of going into cardiac
arrest, but it wasn’t fear he sensed from her. Awe, confusion, and the sweet
perfume of her unwilling arousal, those he got loud and clear, and he licked up
her arm. The very scent of her exploded on his taste buds, and his beast purred
his delight when she finally smiled, and buried her hands in his fur. It was
torture and heaven, all rolled into one to be this close to her, and he nudged
closer.

Another gasp escaped her when he
allowed his eyes to bleed briefly back to their human form, and she stood up
abruptly and took several steps away from him.

What the fuck, bro?

Arran’s annoyed voice in his head
made him turn his back on her, and he prowled the stage one last time for the
benefit of the audience, before the curtain fell. Jumping into the compartment
he used for shifting under the stage, he threw his clothes back on, and joined
his brother, Kate, and Natasha, as she re-appeared from the back of the stage,
just as the curtains went back up again for their final bow.

Kate stiffened as he drew near
her, but kept a polite smile fixed on her face, while they all bowed to the
audience one last time. The bumbling Siberian tiger she shared a flat with
bounced in excitement and babbled nonsense as they exited the stage.

“
Oh, that was so cool. Thanks so much for inviting
us. Wasn’t it just fantastic, Kate? I told you, you’d like it. This was the
best fun, ever…”

Natasha kept up her monologue,
all the way through the myriad of corridors until they reached the safety of
their dressing rooms, when she finally seemed to pick up on her friend’s
monosyllabic responses, and an awkward silence descended among them all.

Arran threw Zeb a worried look
over Kate’s bent head, and she jumped when Zeb put a hand on her arm.

She shook it off, stepped away
from both of them, and glared.

“
Do you take me for a fucking fool? You better
explain to me what the hell is going on, before I scream blue murder.”

Chapter
Three

Fuck it all to hell and back.
This certainly wasn’t going the way they’d intended. Arran ran a hand through
his hair and threw Zeb
another
this
is your
fault
look.

His brother’s growl in his head
of
sue me, little bro,
did nothing to make him feel better. So much for
Arran’s carefully thought out plan of seduction. He should have known that Zeb
would jump the gun, and let Kate see his true self. The plan had been to show
her that the panthers they used were not in any way harmed, and to blow her
mind a little, not let her see they were shifters. His hothead brother, of
course, had shifted too close to her, even with the distractions of the music
and the smoke. Their girl was no fool, and only a fool would have missed the
way his eyes changed in his panther form.

“
Erm
, Kate, what has you so
riled? This is not—”

Natasha’s attempt at soothing the
waters was interrupted by Kate’s growl. It made Arran grin, and Zeb’s lips,
too, curled up into a smile. That feminine sound was sexy as hell and would
have done any female panther proud. Not that their girl was a shifter. No, she
was very much human, and pissed as fuck right now. She was almost shaking in
anger, waves of fury coming off her that made the little Siberian tiger take
several steps back and put her hands up in a defensive gesture, as she shook
her head.

“
This is not what, Tash? Not completely fucked up?
But then you would say that, wouldn’t you?” In her distress Natasha blinked,
and Arran groaned when the woman’s eyes turned into the catlike slits of her
inner animal. Not helpful right now. Sure enough Kate shook her head and
pinched the bridge of her nose. Her slight shoulders were heaving with the
effort it seemed to take for her to control her breathing, and the intriguing
line of her piercings twinkled in the harsh lighting reflected off the big
mirrors on the wall. It had been an interesting discovery when he’d put his hand
on her neck back in the stalls. Her long hair had covered those modifications
when they’d first seen her at the spa. Now they called to him like a beacon. He
wanted to kiss his way down the curve of her spine until he reached the firm
globes of her ass, and…

Arran shook his head and with a
rueful grin at his brother adjusted his cock. He’d been in a state of arousal
ever since he’d first scented their girl, and he knew Zeb was in the same
predicament. He glanced over at him briefly and then focused his attention back
on their girl.

“
God, you’re one of them, aren’t you? It all makes
sense now, and there was me thinking I was imagining things. Fuck it, all that
sniffing, and the…” She swung round, and the look she threw at Zeb when he
tried to grasp her shoulder made Arran instinctively cover his balls. Damn she
was fucking hot this fired up, mind you. The most delightful blush had spread
over her pale skin, and her pert little breasts quivered in outrage. He
couldn’t tear his eyes away from the way the clingy fabric of her dress clearly
outlined her nipples, and he grew hard as nails when it dawned on him that she
was definitely not wearing a bra. Garter belt or hold up stockings, that was
the question? The sheer black encasing her long legs in those fuck me stiletto
sandals made him wonder, and his panther purred at the thought of finding out
what she was hiding under there. Not that it looked as though either he or Zeb
were going to ascertain this any time soon, and he smirked at his thought
processes.

“
I’m glad you find this all so amusing, Arran Harris.
What? Is this all a game to you? Have fun at the clueless human’s expense, is
that it? What the hell are you?” The way her eyes filled with tears when she
said that made his chest feel tight, and ignoring Natasha he stepped closer to
Kate. She retreated only to be stopped by the wall of muscle that was Zeb, and
she flinched when his brother pinned her arms to her side, and growled,
“Enough, girl. It’s not like that.”

Arran gently grasped her chin to
make her look up at him, and he had to clear his throat several times to get
his voice to work. Kate looked utterly miserable, confused and hurt, and he
wanted to take that pain away. The urge to run his lips over hers, and to kiss
her senseless was almost too much to resist. She wouldn’t fight him for long,
he knew that. Already her body was growing pliant, the musk of her arousal
heavy in the air. She might be pissed at them both, but she also wanted them
with the same fierce need that coursed through his and Zeb’s veins right
now,
and that meant they both kept messing this up.

It would be so easy to simply
claim her and be done with it, but his panther wanted forever, and he wanted
her submission freely given, not foisted on her by the magic of a bond whose
workings no one could explain.

When she looked as though she was
going to say something else, he ran his thumb over her lips lightly, and Kate
froze.

“
Shh
, my sweet, Zeb is
right. No one is laughing here, and certainly not at your expense.”

“
Certainly not.”
Natasha’s tearful voice focused all of their attention back on Kate’s roommate.
“I’m sorry, Kate, maybe I should have told you, but I didn’t know how. It’s not
something you can bring up in conversation now, is it, especially after all the
time we’ve known each other?”

All the fight seemed to go out of
Kate at her friend’s hastily delivered words, and at Zeb’s silent nod they
gently steered their girl over to the comfortable settee taking up one corner
of their dressing room. The fact that she let them without even a moment’s
hesitation spoke volumes of her state of mind right now, and bile rose in
Arran’s gut. Zeb swore softly under his breath, when Kate sank into the
cushions, and Arran and Zeb both sat down next to their precious girl, and took
one of her hands each. A shudder went through Kate, but she didn’t snatch her
hands away, and Arran breathed a sigh of relief.

“
Perhaps you ought to explain first, Natasha, and
we’ll take up the slack,” he said, and Kate startled and looked at him. He gave
her a small smile, and her friend stopped her agitated pacing in front of the
settee, when Kate cleared her throat.

“
Why didn’t you tell me the minute we met?” she
asked, and Natasha paled.

“
I didn’t know I was a shifter then,” she whispered,
and Kate tensed.

“
Bullshit. You don’t just wake up one morning and
turn into a shifter, do you? Or do you? God, I have no idea.” Kate tried to
pull her hands out of theirs, but Arran held firm, and Zeb followed through.
Having her here, sitting between them, there was no way they would simply let
her walk away, not before she knew everything and could make an informed
decision.

“
Actually, in theory you could,” Arran said, and he
gestured for Natasha to sit down. The tiger shifter did so, with an inelegant
thump that made Arran grin. No, she had definitely not been blessed with the
inherent grace of her species, but there was something very endearing about
Natasha nonetheless.

In the past both he and Zeb would
have been drawn to her. Now, of course, their inner animals only had eyes for
Kate. He could only hope that her friend would find her own mate soon. The
rules might have been relaxed, and working for the new head of the Mating
Project as she did offered Natasha some protection, but considering how rare
Siberian tiger shifters had become, the pressure would be on her friend soon to
mate with some of the large cats, now that she could shift, even it was a poor
imitation of the skill it took.

“
What do you mean in theory?” Kate asked, and she
looked among them all with a frown.

“
You know I was adopted,” Natasha said, and Kate’s
attention focused back on her friend. At her tight nod in response Natasha
offered Kate a weak smile.

“
Well, my adopted family was human, as was my
birthmother. I’m pretty sure she had no idea my father was a shifter. At least
that’s what I choose to believe. Anyway, my inner animal has only recently made
itself known, and I’m still learning how to control her. Cole says that—”

“
Cole, as in your new
boss?”
Kate interrupted her friend, and Natasha blushed furiously.
Amusement bubbled up inside Arran at Natasha’s reaction, and Zeb chuckled
softly. It seemed the Siberian tiger had a bit of a crush on her boss. Not that
it would do her much good. Cole was mated to his own human, and they had
recently welcomed their first baby, which had caused rather a stir in the
council, to say the least.

“
Is he a shifter, too?” Kate asked, and Natasha
nodded.

“
Yes, he shifts into a grizzly bear.”

A strangled sound escaped from
the back of Kate’s throat, and she swayed slightly. It made both men scoot
closer to her, and Natasha shot back to her feet.

“
Are you okay there, Kate? Shall I fetch a glass of
water or something? I’m sorry, this must all be such a shock to you, but you
see, I couldn’t tell you. I was too busy wrapping my head around it all myself,
and, well, I just didn’t know how. I’m sorry, okay, and besides we’ve got to
keep this quiet, because…” She ran out of steam and sat back down heavily, when
Kate shook her head and mumbled something under her breath that neither one of
them caught.

Zeb exchanged a worried look with
Arran over Kate’s bent head and then addressed her friend.

“
We’ll take this from here, Natasha. I’m sorry this
evening isn’t turning out as we’d planned. Let me phone Zach, and he’ll take
you home.”

Natasha sniffed and wiped away
the tears falling down her face.

“
Okay,” she said, and Kate stiffened between them.
“Are you coming with me, Kate?”

“
Oh no, we’re not done with your friend yet, and
we’ll need privacy for that, little kitten,” Zeb said.

Predictably Kate’s head shot up
at that statement, and Arran was half expecting her to kick off, yet she
didn’t, just sat there and stared into space.

“
Only if that’s what Kate wants.” Natasha surprised
them all by squaring up to Zeb, and even when his annoyed growl filled the
room, the tiger didn’t back down. She moved until she was in Kate’s vision
instead.

“
Kate, are you okay? Please answer me. I’m sorry, I
feel responsible for all this. And I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt you, or lie
to you. Please talk to me. I’ll stay here if you want me to, or I’ll leave,
just please, for the love of God say something, Kate.”

****

Kate heard the words, and she
knew she ought to respond, but this was all too much to take in. The friend
she’d known since knee high was in fact a shifter, and the men she was lusting
after changed into freaking panthers. Well, Zeb did at any rate, so it was
reasonable to assume that his brother did, too, and there she had been worried
about the large cats they used in their act. You couldn’t mistreat an animal
that was in fact a human, could you?

“
Kate, please…” Natasha’s tearful plea finally broke
through her befuddled brain, and she looked up at her friend. It all made sense
now in a weird way. Natasha had changed recently, and all the subtle differences
hadn’t been in Kate’s imagination. It was somewhat of a relief, because it
meant she wasn’t going crazy, and maybe it also explained this unreasonable
attraction she felt for the two men who still refused to let go of her hands.
It was comforting in a way, having them both this close to her, their attention
so focused on her that it made it hard to breathe.

As much as she wanted to stay,
she couldn’t. Her brain just didn’t work, when she was this close to her men.
Kate shut her eyes and shook her head. Here she went again. They weren’t hers,
were they? With a frustrated sigh she pushed up and away from the settee. She
half expected the men to stop her, and when they didn’t it made her feel all
sorts of wretched inside. At least Zeb looked as though he was barely
containing his urge to grab her and pull her back. She flinched when he shot
off the settee, and started pacing the room, hands in white knuckled fists by
his side. His panther’s furious growls vibrated up through the soles of her
feet and made her pussy clench in desperate need.

To mask her reaction she grabbed
hold of Natasha’s arm and forced the words past her parched throat.

“
Let’s get out of here, Tash.”

Natasha breathed a sigh of
relief, and pulled her in for a hug, but they sprang apart at Zeb’s furious
growl.

“
The fuck you’ll leave. We need to sort this out.
We—”

“
Zeb,
now is not the time.”
Arran’s quiet voice held an edge of steel, as he, too, got up and put a hand on
his brother’s arm to stop him. “This has got to be her choice, bro, you know
that.”

Kate’s heart beat faster when she
saw the expression in Arran’s eyes when he turned round to face her. She was
looking into the eyes of his panther, and try as she might she couldn’t look
away. Lust, possessiveness, and anger blasted her, but also some deeper, much
more powerful emotion that had her taking several steps toward him before she’d
even realized what she was doing.

Arran smiled and cupped her face
with one of his large hands, while he pulled his phone out of his trouser
pocket and hit a button.

“
Zach, change of plan. The ladies are going home. …
Yes, now. Okay, will do.”

He pushed the phone back in his
pocket, and brought his other hand up to cup her nape, as he closed the
remaining distance between them, until they were so close that his body heat
scorched her skin through the fabric of her clothing. Her dress felt too tight.
It made breathing difficult, as she fell effortlessly under his spell, and rose
on tiptoes to cross the distance between them, all her focus on the full lips
she was suddenly desperate to taste. Their breaths mingled, and his delicious
scent increased. It really should be illegal for any man to smell this good.