The Bond (5 page)

“You’re enthralling, querida, and
I won't deny you again.” He nipped her neck, giving it a long lick, sucking at
the skin there.

She groaned softly, her hands
moving to run up his chest as she arched into his mouth. She gave a sharp
intake of breath as he flipped her to her stomach. Moving back from her his
hand slapped against her ass, and she moaned.

“Now, kitten, on your hands and
knees.”

Beyond words, she got onto her
hands and knees. His large hands smoothed down her sides, nails raking along
her skin.

“Rafael!” He buried his fingers
between her thighs, and she gave a mewl of passion as two fingers encircled her
clit.

Rafael kneed her legs wider and
slid between them to mount her without ceremony. Within her in one clean
thrust, he moved his hands up to hold her at the waist. He thrust deep over and
over again, sinking teeth into the nape of her neck. She howled in pleasure.
This was her dream made real.

As he pushed forward, she pressed
her ass back against him, and they both groaned in unison as he went in even
deeper, his cock pressing against her cervix. Her nails lengthened, and she
gripped the duvet, arching her back as he sped up. Panting softly she felt the
wild emotions of the dream overtaking her, and she submitted willingly to him
in every way.

“More, give me more.”

The room was filled with the heady
smell of pheromones. He growled low against her neck. Nipping at her skin, he
left stinging marks of delight. His grip would have been bruising had she been
other than what she was. His show of strength proved he was her Alpha.

The rhythm he set was a blur, and
she fought her inner cat who wanted to play with him as well. He swelled within
her, and she purred softly. Now he was thicker and longer. She gave a keening
cry as their bodies melded into one. Her cervix opened for his essence, and she
shuddered, her eyes closing beneath the blindfold as she gushed her need around
him and he filled her full. The tingling sensation that started in her womb
bloomed outward through every part of her body.

“Now this is called getting what
you want and need, kitten. What we both want and needed.” The whispered words
and his lips against her ear thrilled her.

He surged forward, going harder
and faster. The call of the moon was upon her, and she had to resist the urge
to shift.

Can you feel it, kitten? Our souls becoming one?
She gasped.
 
I can feel him, hear him in my
mind.
How can that be? It’s the sign of a mated pair! It wasn’t what they
set out to do, but it’s exactly what happened.

“No.” The words tumbled from her
lips as she trembled, instantly launching into denial. He was definitely
speaking in her mind. She wasn't imagining it, which meant that he was her
mate.

“How?”

Sanura didn’t dare trust herself
to speak into his mind, as this was all too overwhelming. He cupped her breast,
playing with her nipples.
Is he going to
ignore the question?

“Because I am your choice. I’ve always been your choice. It’s why you
ran to me when you needed help.” His mind filled hers, sure and strong.
Searching inside herself she knew he spoke the true. They’d been working their
way up to this moment for years.

“Did you always know?”

“Not at first. But when I left it was like an internal GPS always
telling me where to find you and if you were in trouble. It’s why I relocated
to a place just across the state line from our pack. Far enough to appease
them, but close enough to get to you if need be. We will meet our
destiny head on and bring our Pride into this century and beyond
.
” He followed the statement with a
bite that broke the skin. He bit, marking her as his, and took her with wild
thrusts. His fingers slipped to her clit, plucking it, and just when she could
not take any more, lights of vivid color exploded behind her eyes to reveal
images of her cat and his as they had been in her dream.

 
Their bodies jerked simultaneously, and she
heard him call out her name. Her real name. Not querida nor kitten, but Sanura.
She struggled for air as they collapsed onto the bed, the pressure of his body
against hers welcome as they remained connected and he continued to pulse
within her. Side by side catching their breath, Sanura came into knowledge.
I need to see his face!

Sanura snatched the blindfold over
her head and scurried out of bed and to the light switch on the wall. With one
click the room was flooded with light to show him sprawled on the bed naked
with no shame. After all this time, he was hers! The one loved from her past
and thought lost to her impossibly had been hers all along.

Her mind was flooded with the
images of the handsome boy from her Pride. From the time she was twelve she’d
had a terrible crush on the boy five years her senior, and when he’d
mysteriously left them when she was fifteen she’d been heartbroken. At the time
she’d been too young to understand what had prompted his departure. But now it
all made sense. Her head tilted to the side as they studied one another.

“Would you have come back for me?
If I hadn’t come to you when I discovered what Logan was doing? All that time
we kept in contact and met up, you treated me like nothing more than an old
friend.” There had always been something about him that called to her, made her
want things her young mind wasn’t ready to comprehend.

“Yes, I would have, eventually. I
had to figure out how to ingratiate myself with the Pride first. Your love for
them is great. I didn’t want to separate you from that or your father. When you
came to me it was the break I’d been looking for. Logan covered his tracks
well. I needed someone on the inside. In my heart I’ve always thought of you as
my mate. Mine, not his.”

“B-But why?”

“You know as well as I do,
something potent has always existed between us. But you were far too young to
explore the kind of relationship I wanted. So I bided my time and waited in
anticipation of your eighteenth birthday, and then the incident occurred.”

“This is all too much,” Sanura
whispered with a shake of her head. She’d come there to get away from Logan and
to discuss what she’d found out, and instead ended up mated.

“How could you have known and I
didn’t?”

“A gentleman never reveals his
secrets.”

“Would a gentleman have fucked me
senseless like you did?”

“Did you want a gentle fucking?”
The grin he gave her made her wet all over again.

He eased from the bed, approaching
her with caution as he she watched him through lowered lids. She held up her
hands to ward him off, and he stopped just inches from her.

“I know the waiting was extreme,
but I couldn’t risk you slipping up with Logan. If he’d drug me, what would he
do to you?”

She sighed, tamping down the anger
that threatened to rise at his deceit. He’d known all this time and hadn’t told
her. On the other hand, he’d been trying to garner the information and to keep
her safe at the same time. She’d put herself in harm’s way by pretending to be
with Logan to find out information.

“No more lies from now on,
Rafael.”

“Never again, you can feel the
truth of my words through our bond if you look.”

Sanura grew silent, testing the
waters of their newfound connection. She could find nothing deceitful within
him. He meant every word he’d spoken. Through their link she could also see
that he was in love with her and had been since they were younger. When he
moved forward she allowed him to pull her into his arms and to carry her back
to the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed with her in his lap.

“Where do we go from here?”

“Wherever you want, kitten. That’s
the beauty of
us.
We make our own
rules from now on. We will also go before our people and let them know what an
asshole Logan is and what his plans are. We will also reveal our bond and that
I’m your true mate.”

Sanura’s heart swelled with
happiness, the burden she’d been carrying so long feeling a lot lighter now
that he was in the picture and she knew they were mated. Rafael gave her
freedom and pleasure, something she’d never dreamed to be possible. The small
kernel of hope was also fueling love for him within her. She belonged with
Rafael. As a child she’d known it, and now as an adult it was a reality. Though
there was something that still bothered her and she needed him to know it.

“I’m not sure. There are so many
things that could go wrong. Logan is dead set on killing my father and taking
the Pride over.”

“He and I are due a confrontation.
He won’t be able to sneak up on me and drug me again. Challenging him will be a
pleasure.”

“You have everything figured out.”
She cupped his cheek and stroked gently. “You make it very easy to love you,
Rafael Cruz,” she said, her voice shaky as strong emotions coursed through her.

“Good, because I have loved you
for a very long time, Sanura Bast, and I plan to make this all right. Nothing
will stand in my way. It’s been a long time coming.”

“How is it you manage to say all
the right things?”

“You would be the only person
who’s ever accused me of that. I have a suggestion for what happens after we
deal with Logan. How about we turn this one night stand into a vacation? I
think we could both use some time away from the Pride to get to know one
another better. To do all the things together that we’ve missed out on.”

“Mhmm, I like the way you think,
Rafe.”

“I want to hear about Logan’s
plans. Tell me what you found out, kitten.”

Sanura stayed cradled in his arms
and reiterated all the things that she’d found out about Logan, including what
he’d been wanting to do and who he was planning to use in his schemes. It was a
grand feeling to get everything off her chest and to be able to lean on Rafael
instead of herself. All that was left to do at this point was to call Logan out
on his lies and to save the Pride.

Chapter Five

“I’m not sure this a good idea.”
Rafael shifted in the backseat as they approached the Pride’s land.

“I’m the Chief’s daughter. They’re
not going to search my car, even If I have been M.I.A. for twenty-four hours.
Stay under the blankets and lie still.” She’d spent an hour saturating the
blanket with her scent and mating pheromones. One whiff and the guards would be
scrambling all over themselves to back away and let her through.
 

Pulling up to the gates that
protected their land, she rolled down her window.

“Sanura! Everyone’s been looking
for you. Are you okay?” The brown-skinned man with hazel eyes and a rich
baritone looked genuinely concerned. It made her feel guilty.

“Sorry, needed some to clear my
head, and telling anyone here would’ve ended up with a detail.”

He inhaled, and his eyes flashed
yellow. Spine stiffening he stepped away from the car. “That you’ll have to
take up with your father.” He waved her inside, and she rode past the
checkpoint, mentally cheering. The first part had gone down without a hitch.
If only everything else could be as smooth.

“We’re good,” she whispered.
Mentally prepping herself for the shit storm about to descend, she took deep
breaths in, exhaling through her nose.

“Thank God.” His head appeared at
her right elbow. “On a scale of one to ten, how pissed do you think your father
is?”

“Eleven. In his mind, Logan is the
model Pride member, and I’m lucky to have his attention directed at me. The
blatant disrespect I’ve shown him won’t sit well.”
 
She shook her head. “This is going to break
his heart.”

“Better his heart than his life.”
He nudged her arm with his head. The silky strands of hair tickled her arm.

“I know you’re right. I just wish
I could spare him the pain this betrayal will inflict. He took Logan in when
his folks died, groomed him to take over.” A thought bomb exploded. “Oh my God!
Do you think he killed his own parents?”

“I wouldn’t put it past the sick
bastard. There’s something off in his brain, a darkness that’s spread more and
more as the years passed.
 
I bet the
deeper we dig, the more disturbing facts will come to light.”

Her stomach churned. “I just want
him gone.” If she never saw his face again it’d be too soon. But people like
him, they never stopped. They kept coming back until they were put down like a
rabid dog.

“You know the penalty for this
will be death.”

“I know … but law dictates we give
him a trial in front of the council.”

“Your father can override that and
given the situation, I wager Logan will be lucky to live another day. Chief
Aren was never one to suffer fools, and he’s old school. You run with the
Pride, never against it.”

“That’s not the right way to
handle things. We need to make an example of him. Humiliate him. Let everyone
know his evil deeds. I don’t want a copy cat or some misguided loyalists. This
needs to end here, now. I want a fresh start.”