Unleash the Night (17 page)

She looked about nervously, half-expecting to find someone spying on them, but to her relief it was just the two of them. Always paranoid about privacy, her father had hired gardeners to plant high shrubs all around her yard. There really wasn't any way for anyone to spy on them.

Wren released her to dive into her pool. He broke the surface of the water to find her still standing on the cement, covering herself as best she could with her hands. She was absolutely beautiful with the sunlight kissing her skin.

“Join me, Maggie.”

Her smile was shy an instant before she waded into the pool with him. Like all tigers, Wren loved to play in water. He could hold his breath under the surface for a lot longer than a human.

He dove under and propelled himself toward his prey. He nipped her thigh under the water before he broke the surface.

Marguerite shivered as she felt Wren's naked body up against hers in the water. He nudged her thighs apart to place his hips between her legs. She moaned at the sensation of the water lapping against the tenderest part of her body as the tip of his swollen cock pressed against her core.

She stared up at Wren. He was gorgeous with his hair slicked back from his face. His features really were perfect. But it wasn't until then that she realized he no longer hid his eyes from her. In public, he still kept his gaze down and his hair over his eyes.

But around her he didn't. If she brushed the hair out of his eyes, he left it that way.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“I was just thinking of how different you are from the night we met.”

She closed her eyes as he slid himself inside her again.

How could any man be ready to have sex again so soon?

“I'm not different, Maggie. I'm still the same.”

But not around her he wasn't. He was much more open and trusting. He spoke to her, while he didn't normally speak to others. It made her extremely tender toward him.

Hissing, she lowered herself onto his shaft, taking him all the way into her body, before she pushed him away. She swam away from him.

“Maggie?” he called. “Did I do something wrong?”

She treaded water. “No. But if you want me, you have to catch me.”

He smiled before he dove under the water and headed for her. Marguerite squeaked before she raced him toward the cement steps that led out of the pool.

Wren caught up to her just as she reached the steps. To his shock, she actually flipped him over in the water and pinned him against the steps. Of course he wasn't really pinned, he could easily overpower her. But he was curious as to what she had planned for him.

She kissed his lips before she cupped him in her hand. Pleasure blinded him as she gently stroked his cock from tip to hilt.

She moved herself so that she was between his legs. Wren sank down to the steps, then moved up them so that she could get on top of him if she wanted to.

Instead, she cupped his butt in her hands and lifted his hips until he was out of the water. He started to ask her what she was doing, but before he could speak she took him into her mouth. Stunned by the unexpected pleasure, he let his hand slip and ended up with his head under the water.

Wren came out of the water, sputtering to see Maggie's brown eyes teasing him. “I didn't mean to drown you.”

He couldn't speak as he continued to cough.

She nudged him closer to the edge so that he could lean his head on the dry concrete while she returned to teasing him with her mouth.

Wren's head reeled in ecstasy as he watched her pleasure him. He cupped her face in his hand as her tongue swirled around his cock. The sight of her there … it was more than he could stand. He'd never known anything more blissful or sweet.

He came in a fierce, blinding wave of pleasure. But still she didn't pull away. She continued to tease him until she had wrung the last bit of pleasure from his body.

Wren was completely stunned by her actions, by the strange tenderness inside him.

He looked at his hand, expecting the mating mark. Surely no woman could make him feel like this without being his mate. But still there was no burning on his flesh, no magic sign that they were destined mates.

Grinding his teeth in frustration, he wanted to curse in disappointment. He pulled her body flush to his and held her in his arms.

“Thank you, Maggie,” he said before kissing her cheek.

Marguerite sighed in complete bliss as she held him close. If she could, she would stay lost in this perfect moment for the rest of her life.

She never wanted to leave the pool.

“Wren?” she asked, lifting her head up from his chest to stare at him. “I don't want to be a downer or anything, but I need to know that you're not going to walk out on me again. I've never felt like this before and I don't want you to think that I just jump all over any guy who comes into my house.”

He teased her cheek with his fingers as he offered her a timid smile. “I would like to keep seeing you, Maggie. Let's just take it one day at a time and see what happens. Okay?”

She nodded, then leaned her head back on his chest.

Wren closed his eyes and held her while his thoughts churned inside him. Katagaria and humans didn't mix. Not to mention there were a lot of Katagaria and humans who wanted him dead. He didn't even know if he had a future at all.

All he knew was that if he did have one, he wanted her in it.

But that wasn't up to him, either. He better than anyone else knew the cruelty of the Fates. One moment they blessed you and the next they cursed you.

And he'd been cursed enough to know better than to expect something better. No, something was going to happen. He could feel it deep inside. His time with Maggie was limited. He only hoped that when the trouble he sensed came, it fell solely to his shoulders. The last thing he wanted was for Maggie to be hurt because of him.

But one thing was sure. He would gladly lay down his life to protect the woman in his arms, and he would kill anyone who ever threatened her.

Chapter 8

Neratiti

A mysterious island off the shores of Australia

At least for the moment …

Dante Pontis paused to get his bearings as he materialized into the large circular chamber that was decorated in burgundy and gold. Through the open windows that spanned from the black marble floor to the gilded ceiling, he could see and hear the ocean on all sides of the room.

Savitar, their dubious and mysterious mediator, liked the water …

A lot.

The room was reminiscent of an ancient sultan's tent. It was lushly decorated, with an enormous round table in the center that had always made Dante wonder what the rest of the palace looked like. But no Were-Hunter had ever received an invitation to venture into the rest of the palace.

Their mediator seriously guarded his privacy. To the point of extreme paranoia.

The human saying that “curiosity killed the cat” actually came from the Arcadian panther who had once tried to sneak past the council's door to take a look around the palace.

Savitar had fried him on the spot.

As a point of interest, satisfaction didn't bring the cat back. There wasn't enough magic in the world to reanimate the big black, smoldering spot that had once been a living creature. That one incident had gotten Savitar's point across with panache. Don't screw with the big man.

He didn't really have a sense of humor.

For all his laid-back persona, Savitar could break medieval on your ass at a moment's notice. And since Dante had once lived in the Middle Ages, he understood that concept better than most.

Dante let out an aggravated breath as he heard the seagulls cawing outside. The summons to appear at the Omegrion couldn't have come at a better time … insert all intended sarcasm.

His brother Romeo had been down with a bad case of the flu for the last three days while the panther's cubs ran amok through Dante's house without their daddy there to corral them.

Dante's wife, Pandora, was about to drop an entire litter of panthers any second, and his other two brothers, Mike and Leo, had decided they could run his bar without him.

Yeah, he needed to get back home before they burned the place down or, worse, Pandora went into labor without him. In which case his pantherswan had promised to see him thoroughly gelded. He cupped himself at the mere thought. Knowing his spunky little pantherswan, it would be most painful indeed. And given the discomfort of her pregnancy with his cubs, she would thoroughly enjoy it.

He scanned the small crowd that was already gathered there for the meeting. Eight members, all of whom appeared as thrilled to be there as he was. The only ones here so far were all Katagaria. Not that that surprised him. The Arcadians tended to appear at the Omegrion together, as if they were afraid to face their animal cousins alone.

And well they should be. There wasn't a Katagaria family who didn't owe a blood debt to the Arcadians who loved to hunt and kill the animals.

It'd always amazed him that the Arcadian and Katagaria leaders or Regises of each clan could come and sit together without fighting. Not to say that there hadn't been outbursts in the past. But those transgressions were dealt with swiftly and painfully by the Omegrion's mediator.

Savitar didn't play. If anyone breached his rules, he quickly toasted them.

Literally.

And with great relish.

Some of Dante's ire faded as he saw Fury and Vane Kattalakis in one corner, talking to each other. Dante had met the wolves years ago, but what he found odd was that they were here together. The Omegrion was a meeting where only the Regis, or head, of each animal-were branch was sent to represent all of their species.

Only one Katagaria wolf should be present.

A fierce creature like Dante, Vane had long, dark brown hair that he wore loose around his shoulders. Fury had his blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Like Dante, Fury was dressed all in black, while Vane wore a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt and brown leather jacket.

“Wolves,” Dante said in greeting as he neared them.

Vane shook his hand first, then Fury. Dante grinned as he noted Vane had a mating mark on his palm.

“Looks like we've both been tagged since last we met,” Vane said.

“Yeah,” Dante said with a laugh. “Hell hath frozen over, eh?”

Fury laughed. “You've no idea.”

Dante eyed the two brothers. “So how is it that the Katagaria Lykos have two reps?”

Vane gave him a sinister smile. “They don't.”

Dante frowned.

Fury's blue eyes danced with humor. “I'm the Katagaria Regis. Vane's the Arcadian Regis.”

That news stunned Dante. It wasn't possible. Vane was Katagaria. “No way in hell.”

Vane nodded. “As you said, hell hath frozen.”

Dante shook his head. “Yeah, but how is that possible?”

“Birth defect,” Vane explained. “I switched from being Katagaria to Arcadian at puberty, but I never told anyone until recently.”

Dante went cold as one-half of Vane's face showed the stylized markings of an Arcadian Sentinel. They were the human soldiers sent out to murder their Katagaria cousins. As such, Dante despised them with every piece of his being.

“Easy, Dante,” Fury said. “Vane grew up as one of us. As Katagaria. He's not like the other Sentinels, who kill without reason.”

“You better not be,” Dante said as his humor fled. “I might run a limani, but I have no love for a Sentinel.”

“That makes two of us,” Vane said as the markings faded. “Believe me, I've lost a lot in my life to insane Sentinels and I have not taken up their crusade. Peace?” He extended his hand to Dante.

Dante hesitated before he shook it. All things considered, he did respect the wolf. “Human, huh? I'm really sorry for you.”

Vane gave him a wry grin. “Yeah, me, too.”

His humor restored, Dante smiled at the wolf. “Man, I have to respect you, though. Two votes in the Omegrion. That's impressive. Maybe I'll luck out and one of my cubs might switch to Arcadian at puberty, too, and give me another vote.”

Fury arched a brow at that. “Your mate's Arcadian? Does she know how you feel about her people?”

Dante sobered. “She knows. But the only thing that matters is how I feel about her, and
that
she never doubts for a minute.”

Fury and Vane nodded in agreement.

Dante looked around as a couple more Katagaria flashed into the room. “Do either of you have any idea why we're here?”

Vane sighed. “I heard it's about a Katagari with
trelosa.
”

Dante sucked his breath in between his teeth.
Trelosa
was a disease that was somewhat similar to rabies. It was a madness that infected their kind during puberty. No one was sure what caused it. But once in the blood, it consumed the host, making them an indiscriminate killer. There was no known cure. Once a Katagari or Arcadian was determined to have it, then they were hunted down and killed.

“Who's bringing the charge?” Dante asked.

Vane indicated a tall blond man in the corner. “One of the tigers.”

Dante studied the man, who was dressed in an expensive tan silk Versace suit. The tiger dripped money and sophistication from every pore.

Dante's gaze narrowed on him. “That's not Lysander.” Lysander Stephanos was a dark-haired tiger who was about as surly as anyone Dante had ever met and wouldn't be caught dead in tan anything, unless it was tanned black leather. “Was he replaced as the Tigarian Regis?”

“Oh, hell no,” Fury said in a disbelieving tone. “I'd like to meet the tiger with the balls and skill to take down Lysander. That boy eats bear for breakfast.”

“Better bear than panther,” Dante said with a sinister laugh.

Vane rolled his eyes. “That one is named Zack. He's waiting for Lysander to show, but apparently Sander isn't as convinced of the charge as Zack is.”