"We are not your parents!" Tamsyn repeated, her voice breaking on the last word. "You're my mate. And I'm yours. Your mother and father didn't have that connection."
No, his parents had fallen in love the old-fashioned way, without being driven by the mating instincts of the leopard. It happened like that sometimes. Though mating wasn't uncommon, not every changeling found his or her true mate, the one with whom they could bond on a level that was almost psychic. "Mating will demand more from you than a nonbond relationship ever would," he told her, cognizant of the terrifying animal fury of his hunger for her. "I don't want you walking into that before you're ready."
"And you're the one who decides if and when I'm ready?"
"I'm older and more experienced." She had years to go before she caught up.
She seemed to be gritting her teeth. "Fine! Enjoy yourself in your perfect little world where everything goes according to your plans. Don't blame me if I get sick of waiting for you!" She turned and began to stalk through the trees.
"Tamsyn." He used the tone of voice that made even the rowdiest juvenile stop and pay attention.
She kept walking.
"What the hell?" Striding after her, he caught up just in time to see her clothes disintegrate off her body as she shifted into leopard form.
He froze, stunned as always by the beauty of her. Her pelt was glossy, the dark rosettes defined luxuriantly against the gold. Suddenly, she looked over her shoulder and gave him a look that could only be described as haughty. Her eyes were green-gold, not caramel, in this form, but they were very definitely all female.
He growled at the implied challenge. She snapped her teeth in response and took off. He almost went after her--his claws were already out by the time he brought himself back under control. If he ran her down in his current state...well, she wouldn't be complaining about stroking herself to sleep again.
Oh, hell.
Now his mind was so full of images of soft feminine flesh and long stroking fingers that he was in danger of bursting out of his pants. "Shit." Turning in the opposite direction from her, he ran toward a nearby waterfall. An ice cold bath was exactly what he needed to knock some sense into his head.
He wondered if she moaned when she brought herself to orgasm.
Two
TAMSYN SHIFTED BACK INTO HUMAN FORM NEAR HER PARENTS' home. They lived fairly close to the Pack Circle and it was where she was staying for the time being, her life in limbo--she should have been living with Nate by now. Eyes stinging at the reminder of his rejection, she went to retrieve some clothes she'd hidden for just such contingencies. Nudity was no big deal in the pack, but she was already going to be a crybaby. At least she could be a clothed crybaby.
Dressed, she walked to the front door. Her mother opened it before she could knock. With her dark hair and pale brown eyes, Sadie Mahaire was an older, smaller version of Tamsyn. It was Tamsyn's father who had given his daughter her height. Her mother took one look at her face and opened her arms. "Come here, my darling."
Sobbing, Tamsyn went into her mother's embrace. "I don't know what to do, Mom," she said, what felt like hours later. She was lying on the sofa, her head in her mother's lap and her legs curled up on the cushions. "This need I have for him, it's clawing me to pieces. But...but he doesn't seem to feel the same." That knowledge crushed her, made her feel as if she were bleeding inside.
"Oh, yes he does." Sadie stroked Tamsyn's hair off her face with gentle hands. "He's simply had longer to get used to it."
"Longer? How? The bond awakened at the same instant in both of us." He'd come to the door on her fifteenth birthday and she'd felt something in her snap taut, a connection so strong, it vibrated with how utterly right it was.
"Yes, but you were fifteen. Your sexuality was young, immature."
She remembered the wave of heavy warmth that had uncurled in her stomach whenever she'd been around Nathan, the soft ache in low places. "I wanted him even then."
"But as a girl wants, not as a woman." Sadie pressed a kiss to her brow. "He, on the other hand, had to have had a brutal time of it. You were a baby and he'd never have allowed himself to touch you, but he was a man and his beast knew you were his mate."
Tamsyn began to see what her mother was saying. "He had to learn to chain the mating urges of the leopard, wait until I was ready." For the first time, she understood the pain it must've caused him. "And he couldn't be with any other woman."
"Mates don't cheat." Sadie sighed. "That's a very good thing, but it's also a hard thing to bear when things don't work out perfectly. But you understand about Nate now, don't you? He's as hungry for you as you are for him--it's just that he's had years to build up his will against the need."
"He's going to be a sentinel, Mom," she said, proud but afraid. "You know the kind of men who become sentinels. His will was already as strong as steel before he found out about the bond. Now I'm pretty certain it's unbreakable." She rubbed a hand over her heart, where the bond was a savagely twisted knot. Though it was meant to be an instinctive link, Nate had somehow learned to block it. Her animal heart kept reaching out to him...only to slam up against a solid wall of resistance.
"Oh, my baby." Sadie squeezed her shoulder and Tamsyn sat up, wiping away the final evidence of her tears. "Now listen," her mother said, pure love in her expression. "The man's will might be unbreakable for some, but not for you. You're his mate. You have a direct line to his soul."
"But he won't listen. He's made up his mind that we're going to wait and wait and wait and--" She shook her head, shoulders hunching in defeat. "I know he's thinking in terms of years, not months." A wait that long would drive her insane. She wasn't being overly dramatic--the lack of tactile contact between her and Nate, the denial of what their beasts craved, it physically hurt. "And it's not like I'm some sexy little thing that can seduce him." It was out before she could feel embarrassed.
"You're beautiful." Sadie's voice was full of maternal pride. "You have courage and strength and such spirit."
Tamsyn didn't have the heart to tell her mom that while those qualities might be nice, they didn't exactly make her a knockout. Her hands were practical healer's hands, her hair a plain brown, and her eyes...well, her eyes were okay. Sometimes she thought they looked like dark amber. But what man would care about her eyes when women like Juanita with their seductive, curvy bodies were sashaying around? Tamsyn was all legs and strong bones. More horse than leopard, she thought morosely.
"If you give up," Sadie said, cupping Tamsyn's cheeks with soft hands, "you'll regret it for all the long, lonely years that follow. So will he. Nathan thinks he knows what he's doing, but starving the bond will destroy both of you."
"How do I reach him?"
"That's for you to figure out." Her mother smiled. "But I'll give you a hint--he's a man. Treat him like one."
TWO HOURS LATER, TAMSYN STILL HADN'T A CLUE ABOUT what she was going to do. Frustrated in more ways than one, she stomped downstairs with the intention of finding something with which to take her mind off Nate. Maybe her mom was quilting and needed an assistant. But the house proved to be empty. Sadie had left a note tacked to the back of the front door.
Your father and I decided to go for a bit of a roam.
Translation: They were off feeding their animals' need for the wild and who knew when they would be back. It could be days.
"Great," she muttered, feeling sorry for herself. Trudging back into the living room, she had the beginnings of a good sulk going when she spied a box on the coffee table with her name on it.
Another note:
Tammy, darling, I thought you might like to do these while things are quiet (and you're sulking). We could do with some new ones. Love, Mom
Opening the box, she found it filled with homemade Christmas decorations. She smiled, unable to resist their magic. Every year until the horrible day when a bloody nightmare had forced her to step into the position of DarkRiver's healer, she had made these with her family. There were silve
r cardboard angels and beads strung on fishing wire and beautifully detailed paper dolls. But what held her attention were the round glass ornaments.
Each was meticulously painted with scenes from fairy tale and legend. Most had been done by Tamsyn and her mother as they sat side by side for hours, her father content to "supervise." She smiled. Every ornament held a memory of happiness, of love. Her hand found one decorated with the image of a running panther. She stilled.
Healing's not just about bones and cuts, Tammy, sweetheart.
Tears pricked her eyes at the memory of Shayla's patient voice. Lucas's mother had been a black panther like her son. She had also been Tamsyn's teacher, her friend--a friend whose advice and guidance Tamsyn missed desperately. But today, in this moment, it felt as if Shayla stood right beside her, telling her the truths she needed to hear.
This would be the second Christmas since the attack. No one had been in the mood to celebrate the first, but perhaps it was time to heal her family, her pack.
Even if she couldn't heal herself.
Her eyes narrowed at the self-pitying thought. "Snap out of it," she ordered herself. Sulking be damned--she would not let Nate's idiocy ruin this Christmas for her. And she was going to make sure he knew it.
Three
SOLIAS KING WAS A TP-PSY, A TELEPATH WITH A GRADIENT 8 ability. That meant he was strong enough to use mind control should he ever decide to. Solias had done so before--politics didn't allow for such niceties as high moral principles.
His current plans, too, would have been far easier to implement had he been able to utilize his telepathic abilities to coerce and persuade. Unfortunately, changelings had rock-solid natural shields. He might be able to turn one of them--and that with considerable effort--but he couldn't control the entire DarkRiver pack. "But it shouldn't be necessary."
"What, sir?" his aide and son, Kinshasa Lhosa, asked.
"Nothing of note." Solias turned. "Do you have the details?"
"Yes." Kinshasa passed them over. Despite his youth, the eighteen-year-old was extremely efficient. Solias had made a good investment when he'd entered into a reproduction contract with the Gradient 7 Tp-Psy who was Kinshasa's mother. Both Kinshasa and the second child from the contract were high Gradient minds, powerful in their respective abilities.
"Give me a precis."
Kinshasa spoke from memory, his dark skin unlined. "The land in question is perfect for your needs. You can locate a small comm station and office there, then use it as a base for further expansion."
"The leopard pack?" Solias didn't trust Kinshasa--he trusted no one, blood relative or not. But the boy was undoubtedly good at research. "Will they pose a problem?"
"No," Kinshasa said, his tone holding the cool emptiness of Silence. "DarkRiver is a small group with no real presence. If we were going up against the SnowDancer wolves, it would be a different story. They're somewhat more aggressive."
That was why Solias hadn't looked into "acquiring" wolf land. "Begin preparations for development." The leopards--animals shackled by the choke of emotion--were clearly no threat.
"Yes, sir." Kinshasa paused. "There was another matter, sir."
"Yes?"
"The Psy Council has requested a meeting with you."
Solias nodded. "Forward me the details." The Council was likely interested in the details of his political aspirations--power never changed hands without the Council's approval. If Solias played his cards right, he might not only take over the leadership of San Francisco, he could rise to the Council itself.
The Councilors would appreciate his firm hand with the animals. And if it all ended with a few dead leopards thrown into the mix, so much the better.
Four
HAVING HALF-FROZEN HIMSELF IN THE ICY CHILL OF THE waterfall, Nate finally hunted Tamsyn down well after sunset. It wasn't that he didn't know where she was. It was that he wasn't sure he could face her without doing something stupid. Like yelling, "What the hell are you doing up there?"
Her eyes were night glow as she stood on a tree limb several dangerous feet off the ground, in human form. It would have been another matter if he'd found her there in leopard form. That was normal. The same couldn't be said for a woman with a rope of Christmas lights slung over one shoulder. Now, that woman snorted and began to string the lights around and along the boughs above her head.
"Tamsyn, I swear to God," he grit out, tracking her so he could catch her if she lost her footing, "if you make me come up there, you won't be sitting without wincing for weeks."
"You won't lay a hand on me, Nathan Ryder," she said. "That's the problem, as I recall."
She was right, of course. He'd rather cut off his hand than hurt her. "Fine." Slicing out his claws, he prepared to scale the tree and drag her down to safety.
"Don't you dare mess up my Christmas tree."
He stopped. "Your what?" The fir was so tall it seemed to touch the night clouds. Only a crazy woman would attempt to decorate this. But instead of asking if she'd lost her mind and chance getting his head bitten off, he decided to point out another fact. "It's not Christmas for weeks."
"It's a big tree." She continued walking along the branch as she strung the lights. "If you're not going to leave, make yourself useful and string the other side. There are more lights at the bottom of the trunk. Don't insult my cat by playing catcher."
Knowing she was right about her leopard being agile enough to ensure she'd always land on her feet, he looked down, then wished he hadn't. "Where did you get this many lights?" He picked up the heaviest rope, shoved it over one arm, and started climbing.
"People liked the idea of a giant Christmas tree."
"It'll draw Psy to the area like magnets." The other race knew nothing of the pack's network of lairs and aeries. It was a form of protection against the Psy hunger for power. "You want to announce our Pack Circle?"
"I'm not an idiot." The words were blades. "The lights are special low-impact ones. They won't even show to the top of the tree, much less put out a detectable heat signature."
He wondered if insanity was catching. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you. It's ten o'clock at night."
"Feel free to leave if it's past your bedtime."
The bite of sarcasm made him grin. His cat liked being near Tamsyn, no matter her mood. And he was animal enough to appreciate her claws--no leopard wanted a weak mate. "So, what are you planning to do for an encore? A parade of giant jack o'lanterns? Maybe we can use them to scare off the wolves?"
"Good idea." He could hear her smirk. "Shouldn't you be out doing important sentinel stuff?"
"I'm not officially a sentinel yet." Though he was already being allocated most of Cian's work as the other man concentrated on his role as advisor to Lachlan and trainer to Lucas. "I have the night off."
"And you're here? What, Juanita was busy?"
He let her hear the angry rumble of his growl. "Are you really accusing me of cheating?"
"Not possible to cheat on something that doesn't exist."
"Tamsyn," he began, intending to tear into her. Then his beast suddenly realized something. "You're still jealous of a relationship that was over years ago." He couldn't understand why, not when he'd made it plain that he'd been celibate since the mating bond snapped into being.
Silence for several minutes. "It hurts me to know a woman who's been allowed full skin privileges with you--while I'm not even worth a simple kiss."
He froze at the amount of pain in that single statement. "Don't you ever compare yourself to any other woman," he said, his beast raging at the mere idea. The instant he'd realized she'd been born for him, it had blinded him to anyone else.
She didn't answer.
"Tammy."
"I don't want to talk anymore."
He was certain he heard tears in her voice. It shook him. His strong, beautiful mate never cried. "Tammy, don't."
"Don't what? Decorate my tree in peace?" The acerbic edge was back.
"I thoug
ht..." He shook his head, relieved. "What's next, after the lights?"
"Ornaments. They'll take a while. I'm going to get the kids to make one each."
He jumped easily to the ground and picked up the last rope. Stringing that took far too little time though he tried to stretch it out. Tamsyn was waiting for him when he jumped down the second time. "Thanks."
He fisted his hands to keep from stroking the delicate line of her profile. "You going to turn it on?"
"Not until it's ready." She shoved her own hands into the pockets of her jeans. "I better get inside. It's chilly."
He was one step from pulling her into a hug, would have done so for any other packmate who needed it--touch was the cornerstone of who they were. But if he touched Tamsyn, it wouldn't stop at a simple hug. He'd take all of her, claim proprietary skin privileges from head to toe, spending extra time on every seductive feminine curve in between. His voice was leopard-rough when he asked, "What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Working with the kids on the ornaments. Going over some study papers." She turned on her heel. "Good night, Nate."
He frowned. "You're still angry."
"No." She gave him a tight smile. "But I'm also not a sucker for punishment. You might have had years to get used to resisting the full brunt of the mating heat, but I haven't. So help me out and keep your distance."
"KEEP MY DISTANCE." NATE PACED ACROSS THE LENGTH OF his living room and back. "Keep my distance." He was her mate--she belonged to him--and she'd told him to keep his distance.
Something growled deep in the forests that surrounded his home and he wondered which one of his pack was running under the moon. If he'd had to bet, he'd have said either Lucas or Vaughn, or maybe both. The two were still juveniles, but both had already seen death firsthand, been scarred by their losses. Now they waited to grow up so they could claim vengeance.
He would go with them when it was time to destroy the ShadowWalkers. The younger males would be fighting their demons, but he would be fighting for his mate's right to be safe. Something dark and almost violent in him tightened at the thought of her, a sense of complete rightness filling his soul. She was his, wouldn't ever be anyone else's. The reminder calmed the visceral hunger of his beast.